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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26697535">With this Kiss</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireSoul/pseuds/FireSoul'>FireSoul</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/M, Sleeping Beauty - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:15:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>20,753</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26697535</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireSoul/pseuds/FireSoul</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As it turns out, everyone except Sara knew this birthday was going to change the course of her life. Now she's trying to process having learned that she is a princess set to be reunited with her parents, she was sent away because supposedly she is cursed to prick her finger and fall into an eternal sleep today, her adoptive father is a wizard, and she is probably never going to see that handsome stranger she met in the woods ever again. Just a few more hours until the day is out, why couldn't this all have waited until tomorrow?</p>
<p>Sleeping Beauty AU</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clarissa Stein/Martin Stein, Dinah Lance (Arrow)/Quentin Lance, Sara Lance/Leonard Snart</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>63</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Today is a good day Quentin.”</p>
<p>He knows it’s supposed to be, and by God he hopes it will be, but things in his experience so rarely are.</p>
<p>It’s been years since he banished Damian Darhk from the kingdom, but that hasn’t stopped the warlock from doing everything in his power to resume his cruel reign.</p>
<p>“We didn’t get this far last time.” He says, and his friend, his oldest friend and most trusted advisor, frowns.</p>
<p>Martin knows better than most just how far Darhk is willing to go.</p>
<p>He can’t even think about it, Laurel, taken from him before she even had a chance to live. She was barely a day old.</p>
<p>Martin places a comforting hand on his shoulder, his eyes sparkling with sadness.</p>
<p>“I know.” He says, “But Laurel wouldn’t want you to mourn today. She would want you to celebrate her sister.”</p>
<p>They can’t know that, they never got the chance to know Laurel or what kind of things she might have wanted; but he is going to choose to believe it.</p>
<p>When he and Dinah first learned they were expecting another child they decided immediately to take as many precautions as possible. Dinah remained on the palace grounds, and within the palace itself throughout the later half of her pregnancy. They didn’t formally announce it to the kingdom either, which is uncustomary, but given Laurel’s fate he is confident they will be forgiven. However, it is because of all this secrecy that today is much more than Sara’s christening; today is the day the world learns of her existence.</p>
<p>Of course, they have security as tight as they can for a party such as this one, with the whole kingdom invited. He only hopes it will be enough.</p>
<hr/>
<p>As the party begins and guests start to arrive Martin excuses himself to join the crowd, and soon Quentin spots the entrance of King Lewis of Keystone and his family.</p>
<p>“Be nice Quentin.” Dinah whispers into his ear when he tenses. “And remember the arrangement was your idea.”</p>
<p>He huffs, and wonders how many times in the years to come she is planning on throwing that into his face.</p>
<p>“<em>An </em>arrangement was my idea.” He near hisses, taking a step in front of Sara’s bassinet. “But not them. The way Lewis rules over his kingdom-”</p>
<p>“I know.” Dinah whispers, “But Queen Lillian has told me before how much she disapproves of his methods, and she has assured us both that Leonard will not be the sort of king his father is.”</p>
<p>He still grits his teeth together, but he knows Dinah is right. When looking at the logistics of betrothing Sara, Leonard of Keystone was the most logical choice. Aligning with Keystone would strengthen resources to nearly double what their people have now and would make them a considerable force against invaders. Plus at only nine years old Leonard is just reaching the age in which his parents started looking for a future bride for him; it was important they offer Sara to him lest they wanted someone else joining forces with Keystone in the future.</p>
<p>Quentin’s gut twists as he thinks about it. Were it up to him they wouldn’t have betrothed Sara at all and when she grew up she would have the freedom to marry whomever she chose. But that is not the way things work, especially not for people like them. They need to consider what is best for everyone.</p>
<p>Speaking of ‘everyone’, Lewis and his family are fast approaching.</p>
<p>The King of Keystone is a man much shorter than Quentin, with dried lips set in a permanent scowl and his wife and children looking perpetually afraid as they trail quietly behind him.</p>
<p>“Quentin.” He greets as they approach, just cordially enough.</p>
<p>“Lewis.”</p>
<p>The greetings that the women exchange next to the two of them are far more welcoming, but that is made much easier with Dinah cooing over the baby in Lillian’s arms.</p>
<p>“Lisa’s getting big.” Quentin comments, and with little more than a side-glance to his daughter Lewis shrugs.</p>
<p>Quentin - deciding he is not going to try and initiate any further conversation – sets his eyes to Leonard who has already creeped passed him with the curiosity of a little boy and is peering into the bassinet.</p>
<p>Quentin takes a moment to watch the boy watching his daughter. He wonders –briefly – if Leonard knows anything of his pre-determined fate with the baby he’s looking at. He shouldn’t, they had all agreed to not tell the children until they respectively turn sixteen. However, he doesn’t trust Lewis to keep his word.</p>
<p>He also doesn’t have time to find out.</p>
<p>Despite everything; all the security and secrecy, when the candlelight all around the ballroom suddenly blow out and there is a cackle of lightening in the center he knows it has all been for naught.</p>
<p>Damian Darhk materializes in front of him, with a wicked grin and an evil chuckle.</p>
<p>“Really Quentin?” Darhk practically laughs the demand, his Cheshire grin growing wider by the second. “Did you not learn your lesson with the last one?”</p>
<p>Quentin grits his teeth. Next to him Dinah moves directly in front of the bassinet, while Leonard scrambles and hides behind his mother’s legs, clinging to her skirt.</p>
<p>He is going to ignore the way Lewis rolls his eyes.</p>
<p>Darhk takes a striding step towards him, his arms held out as he looks around the room.</p>
<p>“I mean really…” He laughs, before snapping quickly back to a lethal seriousness. “I told you when you overthrew me that I wouldn’t allow you to keep hold of power. I thought killing your first little princess would send the message.” He darts a glance to the bassinet. “Apparently I was wrong.”</p>
<p>Quentin steps forward, steeling himself and mustering up every ounce of courage in his body and then some.</p>
<p>“You won’t touch her.” He snarls and Darhk, Darhk gets that wicked grin across his face.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t dream of it.”</p>
<p>The sorcerer raises a hand then and Quentin hears the infantile cries from behind him. He sees Sara rising from her bassinet, squirming in the air and wailing. Dinah tries to move, to grab her, but with a wave of Darhk’s other hand she is frozen.</p>
<p>“Uh-uh.” Darhk chides, “I warned you what would happen if you didn’t leave my kingdom be.”</p>
<p>Quentin spins on his heel, fully intending to strangle Darhk outright, but he’s frozen too. Darhk is laughing manically, or he looks like he his at least. To be perfectly honest Quentin can’t hear much beyond the blood pounding in his ears and his baby girl crying helplessly. He tries to look around and see if anyone else can help, where are the guards? Lewis and his family, the rest of the party guests, none of them are moving. Are they frozen by fear, or Darhk’s magic?</p>
<p>“You know Quentin,” Darhk’s smug words slice through his haze, “I think I’m gonna let you sweat this one out. See if you learn your lesson that way.”</p>
<p>Before he can ask – or even think about asking – the entire room blurs around him and before Quentin knows it he is crashing against the far wall, and before he can attempt getting up Dinah crashes into him.</p>
<p>But he can move again.</p>
<p>He and Dinah untangle themselves, both their eyes locked over on Darhk, now holding Sara with far too much gentleness for Quentin’s liking. His vision turns red and he charges across the room as Darhk lays Sara back into her bassinet, in hushed voice commanding her to quiet.</p>
<p>“Hmm, you’ve got a pair of lungs on you kid.” He hears Darhk say to Sara, his voice calm as though he’s only discussing the weather. “Don’t worry, since your parents are so insistent on trying their luck I’ll give you, say, fifteen years to make all the noise you want. But, on the day you turn sixteen, that’s it. You’re going to…”</p>
<p>“Gah!” Quentin shouts as his feet are suddenly swept out from under him and the room is a blur once more, and then there is a pain erupting throughout his back as he smashes into the far wall once again.</p>
<p>“As I was saying.” Darhk sneers, just a little loudly and looking very harshly at him, before he sets his sights back on Sara. “On your sixteenth birthday you will prick your finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, and that’s it. You’ll die.”</p>
<p>“No!!” Quentin makes a sprint this time across the ballroom, but he’s too late. There is another loud cackle and bolt of lightening, and Darhk is gone.</p>
<p>A collective sigh sounds out around the room, though make no mistake there is no relief in it. Quentin rushes to Sara’s bassinet – Dinah on his heels – and inside their daughter is lying content and unharmed; for now.</p>
<p>Dinah reaches in and gathers Sara into her arms, and helplessly Quentin looks up, whirling his attention around the room, desperately looking for some way to undo what Darhk has just done.</p>
<p>His gaze locks on Martin stepping forward, and he looks so sorry and defeated that Quentin knows the answer to his unasked question, but he asks anyway.</p>
<p>“Martin,” he breathes, pleading already. “You’re the greatest wizard I’ve ever know. Surely there must be something you can do.”</p>
<p>Again, he knows the answer, but his heart sinks all the same when his old friend shakes his head.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry Quentin, I can’t undo a curse.”</p>
<p>There’s a beat, during which Quentin wants nothing more than to tell everyone to leave, and to hold is wife and daughter.</p>
<p>“But.” Martin says hesitantly, “I may be able to alter it.”</p>
<p>It’s a long shot, he knows it and he’s sure Dinah knows it as well, but she still comes to his side and turns Sara outward for Martin to see.</p>
<p>Martin furrows his brow, inspecting Sara closely before sighing and looking to Dinah with imploring eyes. She gives Sara over to him, and Quentin watches with baited breath as his friend carefully takes hold of his daughter and smiles warmly as she settles into his arms.</p>
<p>“Oh, sweet child.” Martin gushes, taking a finger and tracing patterns in the air over her face; patterns Quentin has long come to know as a conduit for his magic. “If heaven forbid you should prick your finger as Damian Darhk has proclaimed, then let it not be the end of you. Instead let you sleep, until awakened by the kiss of a love which is true.”</p>
<p>It isn’t a perfect solution, not by a long shot, but it’s what they have.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Sleep doesn’t come easy that night.</p>
<p>Frankly, Quentin would be concerned if it were to come at all.</p>
<p>He lays awake in bed. Dinah doesn’t even come to bed, and eventually he gets up and goes to look for her.</p>
<p>If he’s being honest with himself, he knows exactly where he’ll find her. Still, he goes to the nursery first and allows himself to linger in the doorway. The room is dark, lit only by the moon outside, and Sara is sleeping soundly in her cradle. He walks slowly inside, stopping over the cradle and smiling down at his little girl. His heart clenches at the sight. He wants to promise her the world. He wants to tell her that he will raise her to be a great leader, and that she will get the chance to lead this kingdom after he is gone. He wants to take comfort in Martin’s amendment to the curse. He wants to be absolutely confident that nothing perturbed will happen on her sixteenth birthday and instead the worst news of the day will be that she is betrothed to Leonard Snart.</p>
<p>Ok, one problem at a time.</p>
<p>He leaves the nursery as quietly as he’s come and makes his way down the long hallway to the balcony and gently nudges open the door, unsurprised to find himself looking at the backside of his wife.</p>
<p>“Quite a day, huh?”</p>
<p>She turns, her face set in thought, and he lets himself out into the cool air of the night. Actually, it’s very cool air, almost icy. Something about that is actually a comfort, like even nature itself is fretting over this curse.</p>
<p>Dinah turns back to the expansive view of the kingdom, remaining quiet as he settles behind her and wraps his arms around her waist.</p>
<p>“I thought of burning every spinning wheel in the kingdom.”</p>
<p>He chuckles, he has to. It is such a preposterous idea and yet it isn’t.</p>
<p>“Do you think that could work?”</p>
<p>He says it almost as a joke, but at the same time if she were to turn around and tell him “yes” he would go out right now and issue an order that ever spinning wheel within the kingdom’s bounds is to be burned and the production of more would be strictly prohibited.</p>
<p>“No.” Dinah says sadly as she turns in his grasp, her eyes shimmering with tears as she looks up at him. “If Darhk gets word of what Martin’s done-”</p>
<p>“He won’t.”</p>
<p>“You don’t know that.”</p>
<p>She’s right.</p>
<p>She sniffles and swipes at her eyes.</p>
<p>“We already lost one daughter to him Quentin. We’ve banished him, but clearly that is not enough to keep him at bay. He could come back for Sara any day and take her.”</p>
<p>“I know.” He sighs, “But darling there is a reason we banished him as opposed to, you know, something more permanent. He’s too powerful. If we could find just one warrior with the power-”</p>
<p>“I know.” Dinah interrupts him. “What I am saying is he if he truly wants our family line dead he won’t wait until Sara is sixteen, and especially not if he finds out Martin has amended the curse; and he will.”</p>
<p>“Then what do you suppose we do?” He asks and his wife blinks away more of her tear.</p>
<p>“I…” She sniffles, “I… So long as he knows where Sara is, she will be in danger.”</p>
<p>It feels like a brick settling in his chest, but he knows she’s right. They can’t afford to be blind here. Darhk will come for Sara again; it is not a question of if but a question of when. She’s a sitting duck here in the castle.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A Very Important Birthday</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As the light filters in through her bedroom window Sara blinks her eyes open and then closes them again, what she wouldn’t give for five more minutes of sleep. Maybe today… No, she decides, looking across the room at the wooden bunk beds and her little siblings still sound asleep. She loves Jax and Lily more than anything, but quiet is rare with the two of them around, and today she wouldn’t mind some time to herself not spent sleeping.</p>
<p>She swings her legs over the edge of the bed and stretches, yawning quietly as she does so and then she gets dressed for the day. It doesn’t take her long to get dressed or to do her hair, even if she does take the time to do a twist on each side and join them in a braid down the back. Once she’s done she tiptoes her way across the room and down the wooden stairs, being careful to avoid the creaky ones.</p>
<p>“There she is!” She looks up at the sound of Mama’s voice, “Happy birthday sweetheart!”</p>
<p>“Thank you.” She says with a smile, crossing the room and into Mama’s waiting arms. She laughs as she’s squeezed even tighter than usual, which is saying something when it comes to Mama.</p>
<p>“Oh, it seems like just yesterday your Papa came through the front door holding you.”</p>
<p>She snorts as she pulls away. It seems to be tradition that she’s reminded every birthday of her rather spontaneous adoption, how Papa had been away on business and in the process come across her; an infant in a rather precarious situation of which she has never been told the details.</p>
<p>“As I recall, Clarissa, you had said you wanted a child not long before.” Papa comes to his own defense right on cue, emerging from the back bedroom in time for Mama to roll her eyes at him before she turns back to the hearth and the pot of steaming porridge cooking there.</p>
<p>“Happy birthday my dear.” Papa says, coming and giving her a hug every bit as tight as Mama’s, and Sara laughs and returns the embrace.</p>
<p>He holds her for a long moment, longer than what is normal, and once he’s finally allowed her to pull back he keeps his hands on her arms, his eyes looking her up and down with reverence.</p>
<p>“Look at you.” He says, “Sixteen. I can’t believe this day is here.”</p>
<p>She hums, smiling.</p>
<p>“Well believe it.” She lightly insists, “I’m not a child anymore, though you and Mama I’m sure think otherwise.”</p>
<p>As expected, Mama laughs at her comment.</p>
<p>“If you’re so grown up I should expect you to make your own breakfast.”</p>
<p>She says this while she’s reaching over for a bowl, ladling a portion of porridge into it and then she passes it over.</p>
<p>“You wake up at an unnaturally early hour.” She reminds Mama while she locates a spoon. “I couldn’t beat you to the hearth if I tried.”</p>
<p>Mama hums, and the conversation ends there. Sara sits at the table and eats her breakfast while her parents murmur under their breaths about something behind her, then she gets up and puts her bowl by the wash bin.</p>
<p>“Ok, if anyone needs me I’ll be out doing my chores.”</p>
<p>“Actually Sara.” Mama says before she can so much as turn around. “Could you just feed Gideon? The children will be awake soon and I’d like for the three of you to go pick some berries for after supper tonight.”</p>
<p>She arches her eyebrow. It does not take all three of them to pick berries. It only takes her, considering Jax and Lily won’t help and will instead start playing some imaginary game. But Papa has that look on his face, the one that encourages her to just say yes and go along with it because this is part of some sort of plan.</p>
<p>“Alright.” She nods, and then goes outside to take care of Gideon.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Clarissa is frowning soon as Sara turns her back to her, and outright sighing once she’s out the front door. It isn’t even a full second later when she feels Martin’s hand on her shoulder and she allows herself to fall back against him.</p>
<p>“She’ll be alright darling.” Martin’s voice is steady in her ear.</p>
<p>“How can you be sure?”</p>
<p>She feels him tense behind her, his fingers gripping her shoulder just a little tighter.</p>
<p>“There are no spinning wheels in the forest.”</p>
<p>She wants to laugh, and admittedly she does find herself smirking.</p>
<p>“No.” She says, reaching a hand up to where his rests on her shoulder and taking his fingers lightly in hers. “There aren’t.”</p>
<p>She turns then, looking up at his worried expression. She wants to be able to promise him that he’s right. Everything will be ok and today will be uneventful, and tomorrow the real challenge will begin. Tomorrow Sara will still be alive, awake, and probably not speaking with either of them because she’ll know the truth and, well, Sara has never taken kindly to being lied to. Eventually, though, she’ll come around and understand that it was all for her own protection. Besides, she’ll need someone to shout at once she learns of her betrothal.</p>
<p>Clarissa sighs; this is not going to be easy.</p>
<p>Martin tightens his grip on her hand, and brings her knuckles to his lips to place a kiss there.</p>
<p>“No matter what, this is an important birthday for her.” He says; a tiny smirk forcing it’s way onto his face. “She’s a young lady now.”</p>
<p>Clarissa hums, knowing that is very true, and before she can say anything she hears thump from the stairs and smirks to herself.</p>
<p>No matter what happens today they did successfully get one child to the edge of adulthood, now just two more to go.</p>
<hr/>
<p>After Gideon has been fed, the kids have eaten breakfast, and a few other things have been cleaned up around the house Sara finds herself trekking out into the forest piggybacking Jax with Lily walking beside her, swinging the basket for the berries to and fro without a care in the world.</p>
<p>“Papa says today is an important birthday.” Lily chimes all of a sudden, pausing the swinging of her basket while she climbs up on a tree stump.</p>
<p>“Oh does he now?” Sara asks with a smirk, hiking Jax up a little higher.</p>
<p>“Yeah!” Her little brother shouts, loudly, right in her ear. “He says you’re a young lady now.”</p>
<p>Sara hums, inwardly laughing at the way Jax’s voice dips low into an impression of Papa.</p>
<p>“He’s been calling me ‘young lady’ all my life.” She points out.</p>
<p>“I thought that was only when your in trouble?” Lily asks as she takes a long leap off the stump.</p>
<p>“Yeah.” Jax chimes, “So all her life.”</p>
<p>“Ha, ha.” Sara mocks as they arrive at the edge of the forest. “You are so funny.”</p>
<p>She can hear Jax snickering, and so as punishment for his comment she feigns dropping him, just enough to make him squeal.</p>
<p>“Hey!” He protests, his fingernails digging into the flesh of her collar.</p>
<p>“Be nice to me.” She says, “It’s my birthday.”</p>
<p>She knows he’s rolling his eyes, and Lily is giggling as she skips beside them. It isn’t much longer before they’re coming up on the edge of the forest, and then only a few minutes before they’re seeing the clearing long marked by remnants of forts and other sorts of games played here by the children of their small village.</p>
<p>“Ok.” Sara says; stopping and letting Jax slide off her back before she straightens up and holds a hand out to Lily. “Basket. Don’t you two go far.”</p>
<p>They nod and Lily is all too happy to hand over the basket. Sara can’t help smiling to herself as the two of them take off running into the trees while she goes for the berry bushes.</p>
<p>She hums to herself as she collects the berries, wondering what it is Mama and Papa needed her away from the house for. Usually they don’t bother being secretive with the baking of birthday cakes, though it could be possible they’re organizing a small party or something of the sort being that today is, as Papa evidentially said, an important birthday.</p>
<p>While she picks berries she is half in her thoughts and half listening to the background sound of Lily and Jax screeching at each other. She can hear leaves rustling in the direction of their voices, as well as the occasional snapping of a stick. She listens to their mayhem even as it returns closer to her, and when the noise all of a sudden stops she assumes they’ve stopped to catch their breath. She waits a beat, then two, but it’s still quiet.</p>
<p>Again, quiet is never a good sign with those two.</p>
<p>She turns around, not expecting to see them in her immediate vicinity, but there they are. Right at the far edge of the clearing, with a man just stepping out of the trees and eyeing them.</p>
<p>At first a protective fury ignites in her chest, but the man looks to her almost soon as he’s entered the scene. There is something about the relaxed nature of his stance and the questioning look in his eyes that has her rolling back her defenses.</p>
<p>“Are these yours?” He asks, gesturing to Jax and Lily.</p>
<p>“My siblings.” She supplies, stepping closer to the group of them. “Can we help you?”</p>
<p>He looks… Apprehensive. Like he’s debating if this conversation is even worth having, but eventually he nods towards the kids.</p>
<p>“I just want my cloak back.”</p>
<p>What?</p>
<p>She furrows her brow and turns to the kids – who are staring at each other and seeming to have a silent conversation- and then her eyes drift past them to an ill-constructed fort they’ve been working on with a bright red cloak hanging over the entryway.</p>
<p>“Oh my god!” She exclaims, suddenly mortified as she stomps over to the fort and snatches the cloak from it’s place. “Are you kidding me? Did you guys steel this?!”</p>
<p>“No!” Lily hurriedly cries a defense; “We founded it on the ground! Over there, all alone!”</p>
<p>“Yeah!” Jax exclaims, backing her up, and both of them now crowding around her legs as she marches back over to their visitor. “We didn’t take it from him!”</p>
<p>“That sounds about right.” The stranger chuckles before she can properly lay into either of the kids about lying. “I noticed it had fallen out of my pack when I stopped to water my horse. If it weren’t a gift for a friend I would’ve left it, red isn’t really my color.”</p>
<p>No, Sara thinks to herself as her eyes decide now is the time to take in the sight of the man before her without intent to cause bodily harm, it certainly is not.</p>
<p>He’s dressed in a mix of dark blue and black right now, and it works<em> very </em>well for him. He’s about a head taller than she is, and the drawling pattern of his voice is something she finds she’s waiting to hear again so she can listen without assessing for lies.</p>
<p>She hands him the cloak, and by now Jax and Lily have already snuck away, likely climbing up a tree just out of her line of sight judging by the sound of leaves rustling.</p>
<p>“So, your siblings?” The stranger asks in lieu of leaving, something Sara isn’t going to mark down as a problem.</p>
<p>“Jax and I are adopted.” She supplies, knowing where his confusion is without needing to ask.</p>
<p>“Ah.” He says with a nod, “Makes sense.”</p>
<p>She smiles, and for a moment it’s just the two of them in the quiet of the forest, if you ignore the distant giggles of her siblings and a not-so-distant grunting she recognizes as that of an impatient horse. He must have tied his horse’s reigns to a tree close by.</p>
<p>“Well tell your siblings thank you for finding my cloak.” He says, holding the garment up between them. “Although I must admit if they had decided to, say, burn it, I wouldn’t have been too broken up about it.”</p>
<p>“And your friend?” Sara snorts, and oh, she likes the way his dark eyes sparkle with mischief when he smirks.</p>
<p>“That would’ve been the fun part.” He insists, “He’d get over it.” He amends, “Worst case scenario he would need to have another one made, and our friend who made it would be all too happy. He really should have become a seamstress as opposed to a blacksmith.”</p>
<p>Sara chuckles, and suddenly there is a loud snort from behind the stranger, and he sighs.</p>
<p>“It seems my horse is ready to go.” He says, and Sara could swear he sounds almost regretful.</p>
<p>She nods, “Well, if you find yourself passing through here again sometime, I live right down the road, and my mother would be thrilled if I were to invite someone for supper.”</p>
<p>He smirks at her; “I’ll keep that in mind. I should be on my way back through here in two or three days.”</p>
<p>She nods, and before she can say anything more there is a full on neigh from his horse, so instead she starts laughing.</p>
<p>“I promise he’ll be quieter at supper.” He says.</p>
<p>“That’s alright.” She assures him, “We have a friend for him too.”</p>
<p>The man hums and snickers at her, and then he’s gone off into the trees, grumbling to his horse. “Yes Hunter I hear you, I am <em>coming</em>!”</p>
<p>Sara chuckles to herself and slowly starts back on picking berries, still thinking about the mysterious stranger, and it occurs to her she never caught his name.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. As the story goes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Sara has a boyfriend!”</p>
<p>Sara wants to disappear.</p>
<p>Leave it to Lily to make that very loud proclamation before she’s even in the door, her and Jax skipping merrily into the house. Though Sara does have to admit, the color draining from Papa’s face as he tries to hug Lily, keep his eyes over on her for an explanation, but also ask Lily what she’s talking about all at once is rather amusing.</p>
<p>“Relax.” She says, closing the door behind her and putting the full basket of berries down at her feet. “I do not have a boyfriend. I- oh my god!” She gasps, her thoughts of the stranger from the woods momentarily forgotten when her eyes fall past her parents and land on the kitchen table.</p>
<p>Sitting on the center of the table there is a small cake, and laid out on her usual chair is a beautiful blue gown with long sleeves and a skirt that isn’t too puffy.</p>
<p>“Happy birthday!” Mama manages to declare, a smile on her face that Sara matches in spades as she crosses the room, quickly, and begins inspecting the dress.</p>
<p>“Pretty!” Lily declares, moving for the dress as well, but Papa scoops her up into his arms to keep her back.</p>
<p>“Pretty and delicate.” He chides her, “In other words, not for you to touch.”</p>
<p>Lily huffs, and Sara notes Jax taking half a step back as well, knowing those words are meant for him too.</p>
<p>“Do you like it?” Mama asks, “We weren’t sure which color, I thought you would like the blue.”</p>
<p>“I wanted to get you the pink.” Papa mutters, to which Sara can’t help but laugh.</p>
<p>“I love it!” She exclaims, though she must admit seeing such an elegant dress and knowing it’s meant for her does set a weight in her chest.</p>
<p>As Papa said, this is a very important birthday; she is a young lady now. She knows why it is most girls her age receive a dress like this. It’s a dress to get married in. At the very least, it’s a dress to wear to a ball or some other adult party and to impress someone with. This train of thought, of course, brings her mind back to earlier today and the stranger, and she wonders idly what he would think of the dress. Maybe he would think she is beautiful, or maybe he would say he prefers her plain clothes.</p>
<p>She really is getting ahead of herself with thoughts like those.</p>
<p>“Thank you so much.” She gushes, putting the dress aside and hugging both her parents, and by consequence Lily as well given that she is still in Papa’s arms.</p>
<p>It dawns on her a fraction of a second too late that Lily also knows why it is older girls get these kinds of dresses, and she also met their new friend in the woods today.</p>
<p>“Are you gonna wear that when you marry your boyfriend?” She asks, almost on cue.</p>
<p>Their parents are now back to pale faces and worried looks, so Sara rolls her eyes.</p>
<p>“No one is getting married.” She tells Lily firmly.</p>
<p>“But you asked him to come for supper!” Jax oh so helpfully supplies, and at this point her parents look worried to an extreme degree.</p>
<p>She supposes that’s fair though, she doubts they were expecting her siblings to come home saying she found a boyfriend while they were gathering berries.</p>
<p>“Sara?” Papa asks first, his voice nearly a ghost of a whisper.</p>
<p>“I did meet someone while we were out today.” She sighs, “He’s traveling, making a delivery to a friend. He said he expects to be back through here in two or three days.”</p>
<p>“Sara.” Mama interrupts her, a suddenly grave look on her face. “I’m sure he’s a lovely boy, but… I’m afraid you won’t be here in two or three days.”</p>
<p>Sara can feel her brow knotting up with confusion. She looks to Papa, and he looks every bit as mournful as Mama. Lily, in his arms, is every bit as confused as she is, and Jax doesn’t seem to know what’s going on either.</p>
<p>It’s Mama who sighs, looking between her children. “I suppose all three of you should hear this.”</p>
<p>Hear what?</p>
<p>Papa sets Lily down slowly, and Mama makes the first move to pull out a chair at the table. Papa follows suit, and Sara moves her dress in order to do the same. Jax pulls his chair out as well, pushing it nearer to her, and Lily instead of moving for a chair climbs up into her lap.</p>
<p>“Sara.” Mama starts, her fingers folding together anxiously on the table. “You… We’ve told you that your birth parents asked us to raise you, yes? To keep you safe?”</p>
<p>She nods. “Yes.”</p>
<p>“You… The danger you were in with them…. It isn’t what you may think.”</p>
<p>“What do you mean?” She asks, adjusting Lily on her lap, but her eyes never once leaving Mama.</p>
<p>Her parents glance to each other, and then they come out with this whole story that sounds more like something out of a storybook than anything real. They tell her that she is actually the Princess who has been hidden away from the kingdom since just after her birth was announced. They explain the two of them had grown up as palace servants during Damian Darhk’s reign and while Mama eventually escaped, Papa went on to become a royal advisor to King Quentin after he overthrew Darhk. They tell her about how she was cursed for death, and how Papa was able to amend it. The King and Queen asked Papa to take her, and for him and Mama to raise her until her sixteenth birthday had come to pass. The day after that they are to return her to the palace where she could safely reunite with her birth parents, the King and Queen, and she would soon be reintroduced to the kingdom as the Princess. Oh, and she would also be formally introduced to Prince Leonard of Keystone. Who she is expected to marry.</p>
<p>What.</p>
<p>The.</p>
<p>Hell?</p>
<p>She doesn’t believe it, not for a moment.</p>
<p>“You’re joking.” She says flatly. She wants to laugh, that is what one is supposed to do when faced with a joke, but they look so serious it’s impossible.</p>
<p>“We aren’t, I’m afraid.” Papa says, “First thing tomorrow morning we are taking you to King Quentin and Queen Dinah. They are your birth parents.”</p>
<p>She…. No. No that’s… That’s insane. If Sara were to try and define the word ‘insane’, this story of theirs would be what she would say.</p>
<p>“Yes Jax?” Mama suddenly asks, and only then does Sara notice her little brother has raised his hand and patiently waited to be acknowledged.</p>
<p>“Am I a Prince?”</p>
<p>Her parents chuckle, and the sudden shift jars Sara from thinking they’re crazy to almost believing them; because they’re laughter is not that of two people who are in the midst of a prank.</p>
<p>“No Jefferson.” Papa says, using Jax’s full name, as he is often fond of doing. “I’m afraid your origin is slightly less exciting.”</p>
<p>Again, Jax raises his hand.</p>
<p>“Yes Jax?” Mama repeats.</p>
<p>“When I grow up, are you gonna bring me back too?”</p>
<p>Now Mama and Papa look uncomfortable, and that is what seals it for Sara. They’re serious. This is real. She… She’s the Princess who has been hidden away for so long some folks doubt she even exists, and admittedly she’s been one of those people. But the Princess does exist, and is still alive. She is her. She’s hiding from a curse that is about to expire. Her life as she knows it will be over tomorrow and she’ll be expected to be a Princess. A Princess who is already engaged to a Prince she’s never met.</p>
<p>She feels like she’s going to be sick.</p>
<p>So, while Mama and Papa shift their attention to reminding Jax of where he comes from and how they are always more than happy to take him to visit his birth mother, but no, they will likely never be ‘returning’ him, she ushers Lily off her lap and excuses herself.</p>
<p>“Sara.” Papa catches her, at the bottom of the stares, looking almost mournful and it twists her heart. “I know this is a lot-”</p>
<p>“You think?” She interrupts, her voice clipped, and she winces; she hadn’t meant for that to be harsh. “I’m sorry. I just… I need to be alone. I’m going to go to bed early.”</p>
<p>Papa nods and lets her go, allowing her to get almost all the way to the top of the stairs.</p>
<p>“I love you.” He calls up after her, and she forces herself to smile a little bit, even if she doesn’t bother turning back for him to see.</p>
<p>“I love you too.”</p>
<hr/>
<p>“Sara?”</p>
<p>She turns her head. Going to bed early had been a matter of only changing into her nightgown and lying in her bed. Going to sleep early had been another battle entirely, one that she had lost. When Mama and Papa came up to put the kids to bed she had rolled over and pretended to be asleep. She knows they weren’t fooled, but they didn’t show that.</p>
<p>“Yeah?”</p>
<p>Lily doesn’t reply at first, and in the dark it’s hard to determine where the lumpy shape of her body is on the top bunk, but then there is a little quirk of movement and a rustle of feathers in a pillow as the little girl readjusts herself.</p>
<p>“When you become a Princess tomorrow, are you going to forget about us?”</p>
<p>For the first time in hours, Sara laughs.</p>
<p>“I couldn’t forget you two if I tried.”</p>
<p>She hears Jax giggle, but Lily doesn’t seem as amused.</p>
<p>“Sara?” She asks in the same curious tone, clearly she is going down a list.</p>
<p>“Yeah?”</p>
<p>“Are you gonna marry Prince Leonard? Or your new boyfriend?”</p>
<p>She sighs, “First of all, that guy isn’t my boyfriend. Second of all, who says I’m going to marry anyone?”</p>
<p>“Papa.” Jax chimes in, “And Mama, and the King. And the Queen.”</p>
<p>“Ok, I get it.” She snaps lightly. “Look, I don’t know how those royal betrothals work, but they’re not going to force me to marry some random Prince.”</p>
<p>“I think that is how they work.” Lily informs her, and while Sara is sure she’s right she rolls her eyes anyway.</p>
<p>At least now she knows her days of sharing a room with two seven-year-olds are very, very numbered.</p>
<p>“What if you were already married?” Jax suggests, “Then you couldn’t marry the Prince.”</p>
<p>“Yeah!” Lily chimes, and Sara sees her shadow sit upright too fast and then hears the soft smack of the ceiling against her skull.</p>
<p>“Ow.” Lily grumbles, before pressing on as if nothing happened of course; priorities. “What if you go find your boyfriend now and get him to marry you? Then you wouldn’t have to marry dumb old Prince Leonard.”</p>
<p>The sound Sara makes next is a very strange cross between a snorting laugh and a groan.</p>
<p>“Lily, there are so many reasons as to why that won’t work.”</p>
<p>“Name them.” Lily challenges, and this time it is absolutely a groan that leaves her lips.</p>
<p>“For one thing, he is not my boyfriend.” She laminates again, though she doubts it’s going to get through to her sister at all. “Secondly, I can’t just run out in the middle of the night to find some guy who went who knows where after we saw him today. And third of all today has been a lot already.”</p>
<p>“Hmm… I heard one good reason.” Jax says, “Mama and Papa will be mad if you sneak out.”</p>
<p>Sara rolls her eyes, of course <em>that </em>is the one to get through. Oh well, whatever works.</p>
<p>The three of them fall into an uneasy silence around that, though Sara suspects Lily is still mentally mapping out at least four different scenarios in which she doesn’t marry the Prince and instead the stranger from the woods.</p>
<p>She won’t dare give Lily the satisfaction of knowing she wouldn’t be completely opposed to that.</p>
<p>She’s finally starting to drift off when all of a sudden there is a loud CRASH downstairs.</p>
<p>She’s on her feet in an instant. She scrambles out of bed and as she does shouts for Lily and Jax to stay put because she has already heard Lily land hard on the floor. Whether they’ll listen or not is a fifty-fifty gamble, but at least she’s tried to keep them at bay.</p>
<p>She pretty much jumps the entirety of the small staircase, save for two steps at the top. When she lands she is in the center of the house, and it is completely and utterly destroyed.</p>
<p>Mama is lying on the ground, pinned underneath the overturned kitchen table, and Papa is against the wall gasping for breath despite nothing physically touching him. Not too far from him is a man, with platinum blonde hair and a wicked smile that practically screams evil, and it grows when he sets his sights on her.</p>
<p>“There she is.” He practically purrs. “The birthday girl. All grown up and ready to die.”</p>
<p>She narrows her eyes.</p>
<p>“Oh, where are my manners?” The man asks rhetorically, gesturing to himself with the hand he doesn’t have outstretched towards Papa with an almost closed fist. “I’m Damian Darhk, otherwise known as the warlock waiting for his curse to take effect.”</p>
<p>“Keep waiting.” She growls, and Dark laughs.</p>
<p>“Wow, you guys raised a tough cookie.” He remarks, looking back briefly towards her parents, before looking back to her. “Anyway, no. See, I promised your parents sixteen years ago that I wasn’t going to stand for any successors to their reign. Killing the first kid outright didn’t seem to send the message, so you’re the lucky one. You got to live long enough for your dear old Mom back in the palace to be past the heir producing part of life, plus a few extra years because I was feeling generous, but unfortunately all good things must come to an end.”</p>
<p>Sara grits her teeth and takes a step forward, and in response dark raises a finger at her while clenching is other fist tighter, and Papa chokes more.</p>
<p>“Ah-ah.” Darhk chides, “I wouldn’t.”</p>
<p>She lets her eyes dart around the room. Both her parents are pinned, and she is unfortunately not gifted with magic like Papa.</p>
<p>“Here.” Darhk interrupts her thoughts, and with a wave of his hand a spinning wheel materializes in the room. “I’ll make it easy for you.”</p>
<p>“Sss…ara.. Don..don’t.” Papa chokes, and Sara’s eyes glance between him, the spinning wheel, Mama, and Darhk.</p>
<p>“Do it.” Darhk demands, tightening his invisible hold on Papa. “Or I kill him, her, the two brats upstairs, and then get rid of you the messy way.”</p>
<p>She eyes him carefully, but she takes a step towards the wheel.</p>
<p>“How did you find me?”</p>
<p>“Nice try.” Darhk smirks, “Keep me talking. But like I said-”</p>
<p>“Just answer the question.” She interrupts, privately amused in the way he looks so disgusted by her doing so. “It can be my birthday gift.”</p>
<p>He hums and smirks, considering her.</p>
<p>“Old man was the King’s advisor for a decade, worked in the palace all his life, and then the day after your little baptism gone wrong he just disappears? Took me five minutes to figure it out.”</p>
<p>She nods, and she doesn’t let it show on her face what she’s really thinking.</p>
<p><em>“Ready to die.”</em> He had said, but Mama and Papa told her the story, and about what Papa did. Darhk doesn’t know that. She doubts he even knows of Papa’s powers, considering he came here alone and doesn’t seem at all concerned about that trait having been passed on to one of <em>“the brats upstairs”</em>, as he called them.</p>
<p>She takes a deep breath, her mind made up.</p>
<p>“Sara.” She hears Mama plea when she takes another step forward, her finger extended out to the wheel.</p>
<p>She spares her parents a look, and then closes her eyes, trusting that they will find a way to wake her up.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Race You to the Castle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Darhk has released his hold on him, but Martin still feels as though he can’t breathe.</p>
<p>They failed.</p>
<p>Sara is lying face down in the center of the floor. He can barely see one closed eye through the mess of her hair obscuring her face. They weren’t supposed to let this happen. They were supposed to keep her safe.</p>
<p>Darhk chuckles; something that serves as a cruel reminder this isn’t a dream. Before he knows it his feet have landed back on the ground and he’s folding over himself, catching his breath. With a wave of Darhk’s hand the kitchen table floats off Clarissa and sets itself back upright as though nothing ever happened. Martin looks over only long enough to be sure she is unharmed, and then his attention is back on Darhk.</p>
<p>Darhk, who is grinning like the cat who has caught the canary.</p>
<p>“Well.” The evil sorcerer drawls wickedly. “I’m off to tell their royal highnesses the news.”</p>
<p>With a flick of his wrist and a slight wave to them there is an unnatural bolt of lightening in the center of their house, and then Darhk is gone.</p>
<p>Martin rushes to Sara, Clarissa on his heels, but when they reach her and he rolls her over there is no point in their urgency. Her eyes are closed, and no matter how many times he calls her name or how he shakes her it does no use. She’s asleep.</p>
<p>And that is the only morsel of hope he has to cling to.</p>
<p>She is asleep. She is still breathing.</p>
<p>Clarissa shudders next to him, bringing his eyes to her and he sees the tears slipping onto her cheeks, and feels some on his own as well.</p>
<p>“What do we do now?” She asks him, and isn’t that the question?</p>
<p>Surely Darhk has arrived at the castle already, and he is hardly the type to wait around for a granted audience with the King. Quentin is probably finding out right now about what has happened, which means he will be sending for Martin to come soon.</p>
<p>“I have to go.” He announces, getting to his feet hastily. “You stay here with Sara and the children. If Darhk comes back-” He cuts himself off, he doesn’t want to entertain a thought as horrible as that. “Hope Darhk doesn’t come back.”</p>
<p>Clarissa appears more bewildered than anything else, a far cry from assured, and why should she be assured? What is he even supposed to do once he gets to the castle? He will assure Quentin and Dinah that his amendment to the curse worked and Sara is not dead, but from there? What is he supposed to do?<br/>Perhaps… The children did mention Sara became infatuated today with a young man. Maybe…</p>
<p>He sighs, he will think about that on the way.</p>
<p>He pulls on his cloak and pulls Clarissa in for a kiss. “Be safe, my love.”</p>
<p>“You too.” She returns, adjusting his cloak, her small way of helping him. “Don’t you go facing off against Damien Darhk alone.”</p>
<p>He nods, he will do his best on that, but if he is to run into Darhk he can’t promise anything. He suspects she knows that.</p>
<p>He gives her one more chaste kiss before he lets himself out the front door and into the night. He closes the door and shudders in the cold air as he walks around to the side of the house in order to retrieve Gideon, but there is a problem.</p>
<p>She’s gone.</p>
<p>He stops in his tracks. Did Darhk take her? To stop him from getting to the castle? Why? He already has a great lead.</p>
<p>Martin gulps as another possibility crosses his mind and he looks up, seeing the wooden shudders of the window at the top of the house open and blowing in the light breeze.</p>
<hr/>
<p>“Stay here.”</p>
<p>Lily does not want to listen. She wants to go downstairs and investigate the crash. But she listens, because when Sara’s voice starts to sound like Mama’s it means listen or else. So she listens, at the very top of the stairs, with Jax, and they hear everything.</p>
<p>“There she is. The birthday girl. All grown up and ready to die.”</p>
<p>It’s the voice of a man: Damien Darhk, and Lily curls her hands into fists. They can hear some other voices too but can’t make out any of the words. Then there’s a loud crack and a flash of light. Lily jumps, so does Jax, and for a moment they stare at each other, wondering what’s happened and if it’s safe to go downstairs now.</p>
<p>Swallowing down her fears as best she can Lily leans forward first, and Jax jolts like he might stop her, but when she looks back at him he freezes and then nods. Slowly, the two of them descend down two steps, and they both gasp.</p>
<p>Sara is lying on the floor, the whole house is a wreck, and Mama and Papa are running to get to Sara. Papa gets there first, but when he rolls Sara over she doesn’t get up, and soon Mama is at his side.</p>
<p>Jax is the first to scramble back into their room and Lily follows.</p>
<p>“Ok.” Jax says, starting to pace the floor. “It’s ok. Papa said she’ll wake up, someone’s just gotta kiss her.”</p>
<p>“It can’t be just any kiss.” Lily reminds him, “It has to be a kiss of true love!” She gasps at the sound of her own words. “We have to get her boyfriend!”</p>
<p>“What?” Jax asks, “How? We don’t know where he was going, or his name.”</p>
<p>Lily thinks for a moment, because he’s right. Then an idea pops into her head and she lights up, darting across the room for her dress from the day and she picks it up off the floor and reaches deep into the pocket and pulls out a crumpled red hat.</p>
<p>“Did you steel that?” Jax gasps.</p>
<p>“No!” Lily defends, “I put it in my pocket when we found his cloak. I forgot about it.”</p>
<p>Jax frowns at her but Lily is determined to move past the matter. She lays the hat out on the floor and then hurries over to their shared dresser and pulls open the top drawer. She feels around the messily folded spare blankets until she comes out with what she’s looking for; her wand.</p>
<p>“We can use it to track him!”</p>
<p>“But he said it belongs to his friend.” Jax reminds her, “What if we find them instead?”</p>
<p>“Then we ask his friend where to find him.” She shrugs, and by now they’re both standing over the hat, so Lily grips her wand tight and braces herself.</p>
<p>“You sure you know what you’re doing?”</p>
<p>“Shh!” She hushes her brother, and then she starts her wrist in slow, angular circles. One… Two… Three… “Lead us to the one we seek.” She whispers, and gives one more roll of her wrist before she opens her eyes.</p>
<p>When she looks it’s just in time to see the sparkling dust of magic settling over the red hat like a fine powder, and slowly the hat levitates up off the floor.</p>
<p>Both Lily and Jax step back to give the hat room. It doesn’t take long for the hat to pick up speed and start throwing itself against the latched shutter of their window, desperate to get out.</p>
<p>“Come on.” Lily says, following the hat’s path and pulling over her stool to stand on. She undoes the latch of the shutters and with a grunt she pushes them open. She then looks back to Jax, who’s standing right on her heels. She steps over, giving him enough space to get a foot on the stool so he can look out with her at the hat as it starts to fly into the night.</p>
<p>He looks at her, a question in his eyes.</p>
<p>She answers by clamping her hands down on the windowsill, careful not to drop her wand in the process. She pushes herself up, kicking at the wall and admittedly him a few times, until she’s sitting on the ledge and then he follows her example.</p>
<p>“What about Mama and Papa?” He asks and she sighs, they’re gonna be mad.</p>
<p>“They’ll figure out where we went.” She promises, and he nods.</p>
<p>Looking down at the slope of the roof Lily closes her eyes tight and grips her wand even tighter. She points it out and backwards so the slimmer end is facing her and Jax. Flight spells aren’t so much verbal as they are mental and about proper wand articulation. She concentrates hard, and tries her very best not to sneeze when she feels some of the magic dust starting to tickle at her nose. She, unfortunately, loses that battle, and sneezes herself into the air.</p>
<p>“Ah!” She squeaks, and before she knows it she’s falling. She falls gracefully, and not as quickly as she would without the use of a flight spell, but still fast enough that the landing on the hard ground leaves her with a sore feeling in her bottom.</p>
<p>“Ahh!!”</p>
<p>“Ah!” She echoes Jax’s shout right as he lands on her. He’s grumbling as the two of them get up to their feet.</p>
<p>“Shh!” She hushes him, “Mama and Papa can’t hear us, come on!”</p>
<p>She takes it upon herself to lead the way around the corner, and Jax follows still grumbling about falling out of the window because he was pulled down by her stupid spell.</p>
<p>“It’s not stupid.” Lily insists as she finds her usual footholds on the side of the wooden wall that supports the overhang of thatched roof that gives Gideon shelter. “I just need more practice.”</p>
<p>“I’ll say.” Jax grumbles. He gets Gideon’s bridle and reigns down from their hook while Lily reaches over and pulls herself up onto the horse’s back. Technically they’re supposed to use the blanket when they ride Gideon, but that’s all the way up on the shelf at the top of the wall.</p>
<p>“Come on Gideon.” Jax whispers, petting the horse on the side of her leg to get her down to him. Gideon is a good horse, in Lily’s opinion at least.</p>
<p>Gideon does as Jax has requested and ducks her head down to his level, and she doesn’t even thrash around when he fumbles putting her bridle on.</p>
<p>“We gotta save Sara.” He informs the horse while he’s giving her the bit. “She’s been cursed, and we gotta find her true love.”</p>
<p>Gideon snorts in reply, and when Jax tosses the reigns over her head Lily catches them. Jax then unties Gideon from her nighttime post and hurries around to the wall and climbs up. Lily helps him up and scoots back because, ok, she doesn’t like to admit it but Jax is a lot better than she is at steering Gideon and they need to go.</p>
<p>She can only barely see the glittering aura of magic surrounding the hat that has already gotten so far ahead of them.</p>
<p>“Gideon,” She says, “We need to follow that hat.”</p>
<p>She makes sure to be holding tight to Jax and she feels his legs brush against her as he gives Gideon the tiniest little kick with his heels, and an even tinier pull of his hands on the reins.</p>
<p>“Uh… Jax?” Lily asks when Gideon starts off in a slow walk. “We’re kind of in a hurry here.”</p>
<p>“She’s gotta wake up.” He defends and Lily groans. “What? We’ll go fast soon.”</p>
<p>“Good.” Lily says, “We gotta find Sara’s boyfriend.”</p>
<p>Even in the dark, she can see Jax rolling his eyes at her.</p>
<p>“Just keep track of the hat.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. When Lightning Strikes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>CRACK!</em>
</p>
<p>Quentin awakes with a start at the sound of the sudden noise in his bedchamber. Next to him Dinah shouts and jumps up, and he looks to her first to be sure she is ok. It’s next that he looks ahead of him to the foot of the bed and as his eyes adjust to the dark he realizes there is a figure looming there, grinning wickedly at him.</p>
<p>Darhk.</p>
<p>“Sorry for the late calling.” The sorcerer purrs as he lights a candle. “But this couldn’t wait.”</p>
<p>“What do you want Darhk?” Quentin sneers through gritted teeth. He needs to channel anger. Anger is better than fear.</p>
<p>Darhk scoffs in the faint glow of the light.</p>
<p>“What do you think I want?” He mocks. “I want my kingdom back.”</p>
<p>“Not going to happen.”</p>
<p>This time Dark smirks and steps closer to Quentin’s bedside.</p>
<p>“Isn’t it?” He asks, leaning into Quentin’s face with a wicked grin and a gleam in his eyes. “Lets face it old man, you and the wife here won’t outlive me, and if you’ve lost track let me remind you that it’s been sixteen years. Your precious daughter is gone.”</p>
<p>Quentin swallows, and next to him he feels the blankets jerk where Dinah is suddenly holding them tighter.</p>
<p>He holds Darhk’s eyes. He refuses to say anything. He won’t give him the satisfaction.</p>
<p>“What’s the matter your Majesty?” Darhk nearly teases, his eyes now on Dinah. “You don’t believe me?”</p>
<p>Quentin can’t speak for his wife, but he believes it. He believes it in the since that sick as it makes him feel he doesn’t doubt Darhk has found and gotten to Sara. The real question is does he believe she is truly dead?</p>
<p>He would rather not examine that.</p>
<p>“Here.” Darhk says, suddenly producing a staff from underneath his cloak with a small crystal ball on the top of it. “Take a look.”</p>
<p>He taps the ball twice and the swirling green smoke inside of it starts to give way to an image. It’s a woman with short, greying blonde hair; Clarissa. Quentin swallows down the feeling of bile in his throat as he watches her dragging the limp form of a young woman onto a makeshift bed of hay-stuffed pillows. He feels the air catch in his lungs at the sight of the young woman. He tells himself she isn’t dead; it’s the only way he can get past her lack of consciousness and take her in. She’s beautiful. She looks so much like Dinah at her age. Her hair is a light golden color, her skin pale and he hopes that is usual for her. He has no way of knowing; he hasn’t seen her since she was an infant.</p>
<p>“There.” Clarissa says softly inside the ball, stroking Sara’s hair lightly as she settles in next to her. “Don’t worry. Martin and your parents they’ll… They’ll figure it out. Perhaps… Perhaps Prince Leonard can break the curse. True loves kiss.”</p>
<p>Quentin feels his heart sink in his chest in perfect synchrony with Darhk’s joyful expression. The image of Clarissa and Sara fades from the crystal ball and when Quentin looks back into Darhk’s eyes they are burning with fire.</p>
<p>“What is she talking about?” He demands, his voice a deadly whisper.</p>
<p>Quentin holds his gaze and remains silent.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Leonard sighs as he packs up the cloak he’s supposed to be passing along to Barry, if the idiot ever gets here that is. He searches again through his satchel for the hat but alas there is still no sign of it. Oh well, it looks ridiculous anyway.</p>
<p>“So what’s your plan?” Lisa asks from where she’s sprawled along the chaise lounge.</p>
<p>“What do you mean?” He asks, glancing at her over his shoulder. “To get you back to your own room?”</p>
<p>She doesn’t appear to be even the slightest bit amused by his remark. They’re staying with the King and Queen of the Central Kingdom; here for him to meet the lost Princess, whom his parents apparently betrothed him too when he was but a child and her no more than a few weeks old.</p>
<p>It would’ve been nice if someone had mentioned that to him before he arrived here today; he was under the impression they were only coming as guests for her welcome home party.</p>
<p>Ok… He might have had some suspicions. He isn’t stupid; he knows that in their social class the lines between duty and personal choice can become very blurred, especially when it comes the sacrament of marriage. He also knows he’s next in line for the throne of Keystone and frankly he has been holding his breath for the day his mother would come in and drop the bomb on him of who he is expected to share that with.</p>
<p>He just wasn’t expecting it to be today.</p>
<p>“Did you even get her name?”</p>
<p>He sighs, and wonders what ever possessed him to tell Lisa what it was that held him up today. It would have been so easy to simply tell her Cisco was running behind with Barry’s new cloak and he had to wait an extra hour.</p>
<p>“No, I didn’t.”</p>
<p>She grunts, and crinkles her nose, dissatisfied. “So what’s your plan?” She demands again. “Go door to door in that little village asking if you have the right house for a pretty blonde with two hyperactive siblings? What if someone recognizes you?”</p>
<p>“No one’s going to- It doesn’t matter.” He quickly changes his defense. “I’m not going back there.”</p>
<p>“What?” His sister sounds completely scandalized. “Lenny, you’ll break her heart.”</p>
<p>He rolls his eyes and turns around, leaning against the dresser and crossing his arms over himself. He tries to summon a sneer to his face but the truth is it falls flat; he’s more than a little disappointed by this turn of events too.</p>
<p>“She’ll get over it.” He insists, and Lisa looks very much like she is about to argue but-</p>
<p>
  <em>CRACK!</em>
</p>
<p>But that sounds out from down the hall and the two of them aren’t about to ignore it.</p>
<p>They look to each other and within the minute Leonard is leading the way out of the chamber, Lisa on his heels even though he would rather she stay put. Nothing in the corridor seems out of place, apart from their mother poking her head out of her own guest chamber.</p>
<p>“Are you two alright?” She asks, coming fully out of her room and looking them both over with eyes filled with fear.</p>
<p>“We’re fine.” Leonard promises, still looking around but everything appears ok.</p>
<p>And that does not settle well with him.</p>
<p>“Where did that come from?” Lisa asks, behind him, also still whirling her head around and looking for something on fire or some other type of disaster. Something to explain the sound they heard.</p>
<p>“From further down.” Mother supplies, her breath now caught. “It sounded like lightening but there’s no storm.”</p>
<p>Leonard’s eyes narrow. He’s seen Barry - the clumsy magician he is - too many times fumble a traveling spell. It could be Barry, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s popped up at an ungodly hour, but typically those intrusions are accompanied by a cry of apology. He also would know to land himself either outside of the palace gates or just inside the courtyard, and generally when he overshoots his destination it is only by a few feet. That, or its by miles. He wouldn’t accidentally land himself on the floor of the castle that is home to the royal and guest chambers.</p>
<p>This isn’t Barry.</p>
<p>“Stay here.” He commands his mother and sister, or he tries to anyway. Lisa doesn’t listen, not that he was expecting her too. So he takes off down the corridor with Lisa on his heels and just as he gets around the corner he skids to a halt.</p>
<p>The door to the King and the Queen’s bedchamber is open, and standing in the entryway and seething is a man whose face has been a constant in Leonard’s nightmares since he was a child.</p>
<p>Damien Darhk.</p>
<p>“You.” Darhk sneers, his eyes locked onto him.</p>
<p>“Run.” Len whispers to Lisa. “Run!”</p>
<p>She runs, thankfully, and he tries to follow suit but, unfortunately, he is suddenly unable to move.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Lisa doesn’t know what’s happening. All she knows is this trip has taken one hell of a turn. When mother first mentioned they’d be coming to Central to celebrate the return of Princess Sara she’d yawned and assumed it would be another boring royal affair. Boy was she wrong.</p>
<p>A part of her is fully aware that Lenny isn’t running behind her, but she’s trying not to think about that. She doesn’t know who that man was, but he didn’t look friendly. She runs down the corridor, and as she passes by her mother she grabs her by the wrist and drags her along.</p>
<p>“What’s going on?” Her mother demands, “Where is Leonard?”</p>
<p>“Creepy guy with a staff!” Is what bursts from her lips in reply. “Figure it out later.”</p>
<p>That’s a plan. Maybe not her best, but the two of them aren’t going to be much help to Leonard if they too end up in whatever predicament he’s in.</p>
<p>Fortunately her mom doesn’t ask any further questions, she just keeps running.</p>
<p>
  <em>CRACK!</em>
</p>
<p>Lisa stumbles back into her mother, almost knocking her to the ground, as an unnatural lightening strike materializes in front of them. When the smoke clears from the bolt there is a haggard man standing there. His face is red, like he’s been running.</p>
<p>“Oh… Queen Lillian, Princess Lisa. My apologies.” He stammers, giving a hurried bow and Lisa soon finds she is being pushed aside by her mother.</p>
<p>“Martin!” Her mother exclaims. “Thank goodness. We heard an explosion, Leonard went to see what was happening and-”</p>
<p>The man, Martin apparently, didn’t appear here looking very confident, but now he appears downright terrified.</p>
<p>“You, you need to go.” He stutters, the words firmly despite his obvious panic. He is looking between her mother and herself.</p>
<p>Lisa is about to tell him that is exactly what they were trying to do when he apologizes again and then, with a wave of his hand, there is nothing around her but a blur of smoke.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Gideon’s hooves pound against the earth in a rhythmic <em>tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump. </em>Jax won’t say it but he’s starting to get a little worried. They’re pretty far from the village and heading closer to the city of Central; the main hub of the kingdom. The hat is still flying away with no signs of slowing down. How are they supposed to get home?</p>
<p>
  <em>CRACK!</em>
</p>
<p><em>“</em>AH!”</p>
<p>He and Lily scream, what else are they supposed to do? All of a sudden there is a flash of light and it sounds like the sky is opening up above them. Gideon halts fast and stands up on her hind legs, neighing loudly. Lily shrieks in his ear but Jax is too busy trying to hold on to pay her much mind. He releases the reigns for favor if gripping on to Gideon’s main, his ankles squeezing tight to her sides as he shouts a desperate “WHOA...”</p>
<p>It works a little, he still falls but it’s more like a slow sliding down her, and she doesn’t run away once he’s flopped unceremoniously on the ground.</p>
<p>“What was that?” Lily sniffs, and he looks behind him to see her stumbling onto her feet.</p>
<p>He looks ahead of them, sees clearing smoke, and a sense of relief settles into his chest. He hears Lily breathe in relief too. Smoke clearing means a traveling spell, not a storm. Good.</p>
<p>As the smoke disappears two women become visible. They’re both wearing nightdresses, with their feet bare, and they look very, very confused.</p>
<p>The first woman looks like she’s close to Sara’s age while the second one is older, probably old as Mama and Papa, and she’s the one who growls.</p>
<p>“Martin.” She sneers, and Jax looks back to Lily, who is already looking at him with a look that says she is thinking exactly what he is.</p>
<p>“Martin?” She asks, getting the attention of the two women. “How do you know Papa?”</p>
<p>The older woman opens her mouth to say something, but then she stops, and she start looking at them. Really looking at them.</p>
<p>“Lily and Jefferson?” She asks, and Jax scoots back. “Yes.” The woman decides, “You look exactly as your father described.”</p>
<p>Jax looks up to Lily, but she shrugs, lost as he is.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, you know these kids?”</p>
<p>The other woman asks, and at least she’s confused too.</p>
<p>The first woman looks back at her, but before she can say anything Lily gasps.</p>
<p>“We lost the hat!”</p>
<p>Oh on.</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>No, no, no, no, no.</p>
<p>She’s right, the hat has flown off.</p>
<p>“We gotta go!”</p>
<p>Right, they’ve got to go.</p>
<p>Finally Jax gets up, and Lily is already pulling on the side of Gideon’s reins and is pulling her over.</p>
<p>“Wait, wait!” The older woman says, and she hurries over to them. “What are you children doing here? Where’s your mother?”</p>
<p>“At home with Sara.” Lily explains, “We’ve gotta find her true love! Who are you?”</p>
<p>For the record, they really need to go.</p>
<p>“I… My name is Lillian. I’m an old friend of your father’s. Does he know you’re here?”</p>
<p>“There wasn’t any time!” Lily shouts, and if Jax could get onto Gideon by himself and go he would, because they have to GO! “Our sister Sara is under a sleeping curse, only true love can fix it, and she fell in love today with a boy we met in the woods so we gotta find him!”</p>
<p>“Oh!” The second woman shouts all of a sudden, only a second before Jax tries yelling at Lily that they have to go.</p>
<p>Instead he looks over at the woman, and so does Lily, and the older woman who has been talking with Lily.</p>
<p>The second woman looks like she’s solved a big mystery, and looks to the first woman with her eyes still wide.</p>
<p>“We need to get back into the castle.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Light in the Dark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So let me get this straight.” Mother says as they’re walking back to the castle, alongside Lily and Jax riding on their horse. “Leonard met the Princess in the woods today but neither of them knows who the other is?”</p>
<p>“We had to get home!” Lily exclaims, “Mama wanted us home for supper, and he said he had to go too.”</p>
<p>With a snicker to herself Lisa rolls her eyes. She doesn’t want to get too far ahead of herself but… Well, Lenny isn’t here to chide her and tell her not to, and if Sara really is the girl he met in the woods today than what’s the harm? So, she’ll allow herself to think these kids are adorable, and to hope Sara will keep in touch with them after returning home. She’s always wanted a little sister, and so far Lily is proving to be everything Lenny always warned her made her insufferable.</p>
<p>“So is Papa fighting Damien Darhk?” Jax questions, and the children hopefully aren’t able to see it due to the angle, but Lisa doesn’t miss the fear that flits across her mother’s expression before she gives the children an assuring smile.<br/>“Don’t worry about your father children, he is one of the strongest wizards I have ever known.”</p>
<p>She hopes the words are assuring to the children, but for Lisa they don’t help all that much. Martin isn’t the only one in that castle. The King and Queen are there and prime targets of Darhk, and so is Lenny. If Darhk so much as suspects Lenny can break the curse on the Princess…</p>
<p>No, Lenny will be fine. He isn’t the average, lounge-about, lazy Prince. Lenny is a warrior, a fighter. He won’t allow Darhk to simply do away with him. Although, this Damien Darhk hardly seems like the type to cut straight to “doing away” with his enemies. The question is whether or not that is a relief or if it makes him all the more dangerous.</p>
<p>They walk through the center of the Central in relative silence. The city is so peaceful right now under the cover of nightfall. The shops are all closed up, the houses with their shudders drawn and latched. No one knows yet of the danger they’re in, and Lisa is determined to keep it that way.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, she knows it won’t ultimately be up to her.</p>
<p>As they come up on the castle at the far end of the city Lisa can see two figures standing out by the large wooden door.</p>
<p>“Wait.” She whispers, stopping and the others stop along with her. The children jostle up on their horse, having started to nod off what with being awake so long after dark.</p>
<p>She looks around, but there is really no way to hide. The land immediately surrounding the castle was cleared of its trees long ago, for the purpose of keeping lookout against invaders.</p>
<p>“We should turn back.” She whispers, though where are they supposed to go?</p>
<p>“What?” Lily demands, “What about Papa?!”</p>
<p>“Shh!” Lisa hushes her, “Those might be guards of Darhk’s.”</p>
<p>“Hello?”</p>
<p>Well, if they are Darhk’s minions, they aren’t very bright.</p>
<p>Lisa turns back towards the castle to see the figures are now drawing closer, and as they come nearer a mix of relief and embarrassment settles in her chest.</p>
<p>“Never mind.” She says, before she starts forward again with a renewed sense of hope. “Iris, Barry!”</p>
<p>The two groups meet halfway up the stone path to the castle, Lisa embracing Iris as her husband comes up behind her.</p>
<p>“Your highness.” Iris greets dutifully after stepping out of the embrace, and then she directs her attention over to Mother and gives a curtsey. “Your Majesty.”</p>
<p>“Lady Iris.” Mother teases lightly, bowing her head in her own show of respect before doing the same for Barry. “Lord Bartholomew.”</p>
<p>“Sorry we’re so late.” Barry excuses, and Lisa notices him stuffing the hat Lenny was supposed to bring him into a pocket of his coat. “Apparently too late for even the night guards to let us in.”</p>
<p>“It’s Damien Darhk.” Mother informs them before Lisa can. “He’s taken control of the castle. The King, The Queen, and my son are all in there along with the staff. Martin Stein is in there as well.”</p>
<p>“Against Darhk?” Iris gasps with wide eyes. “Does he have any back-up?”</p>
<p>“Just my brother.”</p>
<p>That doesn’t appear to instill any confidence in them. Yes, they know Lenny can handle himself; Barry fought alongside him in the battles against King Savitar’s armies. But they had an entire army alongside them, and while Savitar was a tactile genius he was not a sorcerer of Darhk’s caliber.</p>
<p>“We gotta get her brother to wake up our sister.” Lily suddenly pipes up, and if the situation weren’t so dire Lisa might find it funny the way both Barry and Iris’s faces screw up in identical confusion.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, what?” Barry asks.</p>
<p>“Their parents are Martin and Clarissa Stein, who have been caring for Sara all this time.” Lisa supplies, “She’s under a sleeping curse that can only be broken by true love’s kiss. She and Lenny met today, so we need to get him to her to break the curse. So long as Central has a ruler Darhk’s banishment is binding.”</p>
<p>It’s not the strangest thing they’ve ever dealt with, but Iris and Barry still, evidently, need a moment to process.</p>
<p>“Yeah I’m still lost.” Iris eventually announces. “I’ve got the whole sleeping curse, true love’s kiss, we need Sara awake thing. But you really think she and Leonard are in love after one meeting?”</p>
<p>Lisa huffs and holds her head high, “He told me about her.” She says, “He wouldn’t have bothered if he didn’t care.”</p>
<p>“Caring and true love are very different things.” Iris warns, and even as she takes half a step back there is still a firmness shining in her eyes. “I am only saying, we may not have much time, and may not have the time to make a mistake.”</p>
<p>“What choice do we have?” Lisa finds herself asking, and with a soft smile, Iris looks past her.</p>
<p>“I have been very fortunate in my life, but I have also suffered great loss. Through it all, I have never known a love more true than family.”</p>
<p>Lisa turns, follows her gaze, and it dawns on her as she looks at Lily and Jax looking to each other. Of course.</p>
<p>For the record, she does still believe Lenny feels enough for Sara that he could break the curse. But she has no guarantee other than that of two children Sara feels the same way, and Iris is right. They are already lucky Darhk’s men haven’t seen them yet; they need to take as few chances as possible.</p>
<p>“We need a traveling spell.” Lisa firmly informs Barry.</p>
<p>“Um… I’m not that great at those.”</p>
<p>“Well you’re gonna have to be.” She decides, seizing his wrist and marching him closer to the children. “We need to get to their house, now!”</p>
<p>“Ok, ok.” Barry says, looking around at the lot of them before shaking out his wrists. “Ok, stand close.”</p>
<p>They do, and with a look of deep concentration Barry lets out a breath and raises his hands up. Soon Lisa feels a spark of static around her. It makes the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and soon the air around her feels so charged she feels she has no choice but to hold her breath. She closes her eyes, and once she does it’s like she couldn’t open them even if she wanted to. Her eyelids stay pinched tight, and soon she looses all feeling of the ground beneath her feet. The sound of the telltale <em>CRACK</em> is distant, yet right in her ears all at once, and suddenly all the feelings of the heavy atmosphere fade away at once.</p>
<p>She can open her eyes again, and when she does it takes them a moment to readjust to the darkness around her. There are more trees now. They’re standing just in front of a small cottage and the night air around them is quiet.</p>
<p>That doesn’t sit well with Lisa.</p>
<p>“Come on!” Jax beckons as he and Lily slide off their house and start to run for the door.</p>
<p>“Wait!” Lisa calls after them in a hushed whisper but it’s too late, Lily has already opened the front door and the two of them have disappeared inside, with her mother following right up behind them.</p>
<p>Lisa hurries, along with Barry and Iris, into the house after them and she is barely a step inside when the door slams shut behind her and she jumps.</p>
<p>She takes in the sight before her. A dismantled home cloaked in darkness, but even with the cover of shadows Lisa is able to see the army of Darhk’s goons. One particularly large man has the children by the collars of their nightshifts: one in each hand. Her mother is also being held with her arms pinned behind her back, and another woman is in a similar hold by another goon; Clarissa, she is assuming.</p>
<p>“Ah, the rescue committee.” A smug voice taunts, and suddenly there is a man leering in her face.</p>
<p>Lisa jumps, and apparently amuses the man in front of her because he snorts, though Lisa is more focused on the feeling of rough, calloused hands suddenly gripping her wrists and yanking her arms behind her back.</p>
<p>The man continues to snicker, and reaches a hand up to grip her chin tightly in his fingers. With him this close the darkness doesn’t do much to mask his features. He’s young, close to her age. He must be a prodigy of Darhk’s.</p>
<p>“Where’s your brother, Princess?”</p>
<p>Giving a rough jerk of her head Lisa forcibly removes her chin from his grip.</p>
<p>“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She taunts, though the truth is she would very much like to know where he is. Whether or not he is even alive.</p>
<p>He has to be; otherwise this joker wouldn’t be asking her. So, it’s a small consolation, the confirmation that he is alive.</p>
<p>“I would.” The man sneers, undaunted. “You wouldn’t have been so stupid as to come back here without him.”</p>
<p>He starts to walk around her, looking for Lenny. Lisa darts her eyes around the room, catching those of her mother along with Clarissa, and then Lily and Jax. She can see the tears shining in their eyes, glistening in the moonlight that filters in through the window from outside. She tries her best to keep her head as a feeling of rage pools in her stomach. If Lenny has taught her anything it’s to wait for the right moment to strike, and to do it in the right way.</p>
<p>At her sides Barry and Iris are also being detained, but they don’t seem all that worried. In fact, they appear to be in the midst of some silent conversation. It’s enough to let Lisa know they have a plan, whatever that might consist of, so she knows what she needs to do. She needs to keep attention off of them.</p>
<p>“So who are you?” She asks, craning her head back and looking past her captor to the man who thus far has been doing all the talking. “Darhk’s lapdog?”</p>
<p>The man snickers, “My name is Alex.” He says, continuing to walk the space of the room as though he is simply waiting for Lenny to jump out from the shadows. “I’m a scout, I guess you could say. When Damien Darhk was wrongly exiled my parents were among those who followed him to the forbidden lands, committed to serving him. Their loyalty did not go unnoticed. Darhk took on my father as his right hand man, and since my father’s death I’ve been learning the job.”</p>
<p>Lisa scoffs, tracking every move Alex makes with her eyes.</p>
<p>“So you’re a mindless oaf?” She taunts, “No thoughts or ambitions of your own.”</p>
<p>He stops suddenly, turning on his heel and eyeing her. It’s hard for her to make out the expression on his face with such a lack of light, but Lisa imagines that he looks a little amused.</p>
<p>Though, that might be influenced by the sound of his snickering at her.</p>
<p>“That’s an interesting conclusion drawn by a princess.” He mocks and Lisa hums, but before she can retort there is a shout from behind her and the next thing she knows all hell is breaking loose.</p>
<p>There are shouts, cries of pain from the goons, and bursts of light as Barry tries to give them the advantage of sight but his spells are snuffed out by the men grabbing at him.</p>
<p>Oh well, they don’t need light.</p>
<p>The moment when she feels the grip on her wrists loosen is the moment in which she makes her move. She drops to the ground quick and so her captor tightens his hold, but she rolls herself back underneath his legs and when she slams her weight in there he has no choice but to let go. She runs from him, over to the man holding the children hostage and lands a hard punch square in his jaw. He stumbles back, and the shrieks from both Jax and Lily are loud and painful in her ears has he pulls on their clothing and chokes them. She doesn’t let him fall. Instead she grabs his shirt and tugs him forward once more before using her other hand to punch at the inside of his right elbow and then his left. She knows right when his grip releases enough and feels the children brushing against her skirt as they scramble to get away.</p>
<p>“Find your sister!” She shouts at them, though she’s certain they are already on it.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Running through a crowded room is something both Jax and Lily have done a hundred times over. At winter parties, village gatherings late at night, but they’re usually chasing each other or their friends in a game of tag. They usually have light. Navigating through their own dismantled home under the cover of darkness with a battle happening around them is entirely new territory.</p>
<p>Jax doesn’t like it.</p>
<p>“AH!”</p>
<p>He whirls around, “Lily?!” He calls, but it’s useless, she isn’t behind him like she just was.</p>
<p>In a burst of light he sees her above him, held tight by one of Darhk’s men and he runs. He ducks out of the way of a shadow coming towards him, and then trips over and overturned something, probably a chair. The light bursts are getting more frequent now as Lord Barry fights off his enemies. Through the strobes Jax manages to catch glimpse of Sara, laid out on a pile of pillows in the far corner of the room, and he swallows.</p>
<p>With the light increasing he at least has a better visual. Lord Barry and Lady Iris are fighting side by side, Princess Lisa right next to them. Queen Lillian flips a man twice her size clean over her shoulder with an enraged snarl that makes Jax think she’s done so before. Mama is behind the man holding Lily, her arms tight around his neck and dragging him down. There are two more men coming up behind her, he wants to run there. To help her, and Lily, but he needs to get to Sara.</p>
<p>So he bolts.</p>
<p>He weaves through the battle like a terrified mouse running for food and away from a cat. He jumps clean over their cauldron, lying on its side at the edge of the room. He practically falls on Sara’s legs when he reaches her and he crawls up her body fast has he can until he is sitting on top of her and then without a moment’s hesitation he ducks down and presses a kiss to her lips.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Rally the Troops</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Sara feels the heaviness of sleep lifting the first thing she becomes aware of is the feeling of a solid and heavy weight on her stomach. That is mildly concerning, and then she becomes aware of a second thing; she hears a thud not too far away and then a question in Mama’s voice.</p>
<p>“Is that all of them?”</p>
<p>All of them? All of who, or what?</p>
<p>The third thing she becomes aware of is that she has not yet opened her eyes.</p>
<p>Apparently that was the magic realization to spur her body because her eyelids start to flutter open and the soft light of the room fills her vision, and allows her to see that the weight on her stomach is non-other than Jax straddling her and wiping his mouth with his sleeve.</p>
<p>She smirks, and the instant that he notices his eyes light up.</p>
<p>“You’re awake!” He cheers, collapsing forward onto her and locking his little arms in a vice grip around her neck.</p>
<p>“Sure am.” She murmurs. She puts her arms around him and in the back of her mind makes a very relieved note that he is the same little boy she told to stay put in the bedroom. However long she’s been out, it hasn’t been too long. “Can you let me up?”</p>
<p>He scrambles off her then, and she has just barely sat up and gotten to see that she’s in the main room of the house, with four strangers and Mama all starring at her when Lily throws herself into her lap.</p>
<p>“Sara!” Lily shrieks, locking in a hug much like Jax.</p>
<p>Sara smiles into her shoulder, her hand tangling in her sister’s short hair for a moment before she urges her off and gets to her feet.</p>
<p>When she stands up she realizes that not only are there four strangers starring at her, but the room is much more crowded than she first realized. There are bodies everywhere on the ground, with Mama stepping over them as she lights the candles; one of the strangers following her with a ball of light between his hands.</p>
<p>“What happened here?” She asks, panic starting to creep up in her system.</p>
<p>“Darhk’s men happened.” Mama throws the words over her shoulder as she lights the last candle. When she turns around there is some relief on her face, but also a good amount of fear. “You’ve only been out a few hours.”</p>
<p>Oh thank goodness.</p>
<p>As she sighs in relief she takes in the strangers, momentarily ignoring the scattered bodies of Darhk’s men. Three of the strangers are women, the fourth the skittish looking man who had been illuminating Mama’s path to the candles. Of the four of them only the man and one of the women are dressed in day clothes, and fine ones at that. The other two women are wearing nightshifts that, though a plain white, have enough ruffles and lace trim to communicate that they also hold a high status.</p>
<p>Her eyes lock onto the man. He’s about her age, with pale skin and the face of a child he clearly hasn’t outgrown yet. He isn’t what she pictured when imagining Prince Leonard, at all, but then again she only had a few hours to picture him before all hell began to break loose.</p>
<p>He isn’t unattractive, she supposes, if she has to have an opinion on such a matter. He isn’t her type, that’s for certain, but she tries to cling to the hope that he doesn’t want anything to do with this arranged marriage either.</p>
<p>“Prince Leonard, I presume?” She asks, and when he twists half his body around to look behind him it sets a small light of hope in her chest, hope that grows when the three women begin to snicker.</p>
<p>“Me? No.” He says hastily, turning back around with a red face. He then gives an awkward half-bow towards her. “Lord Barry at your service.”</p>
<p>He straightens up, and frankly Sara can feel that by now her face has gone pink with embarrassment as well.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry.” She says, “I was told Prince Leonard was supposed to break the curse.”</p>
<p>Well, Lord Barry is no longer flushed red after that comment. His face pales, a lot, and finally one of the women – the one who, like Lord Barry, is dressed in day clothes – steps forward.</p>
<p>“We thought it was a safer bet on true love if one of your siblings gave you a kiss. It was Jax.” She explains, pointing over to Jax who is almost hiding behind Lily, clearly embarrassed.</p>
<p>“I’m Iris.” The woman continues, “Lady Iris, technically, but we generally don’t bother with titles outside of government meetings.”</p>
<p>“It just saves everyone so much time.” The second woman, the one who like Iris and Barry appears about her age. “I’m Lisa, Leonard’s sister. And this is my mother.”</p>
<p>Sara curtseys to the Princess and the Queen, and while she personally feels awkward about the fact hat they mimic the action she feels like it would be even worse to ask them to not. Besides, that can be a battle for another time.</p>
<p>For now, she turns her attention down to Darhk’s men lying scattered around the floor.</p>
<p>They all appear to be breathing, and all different manners of injured.</p>
<p>“We need to go.” Mama says, also surveying the room. “Sara, get your things.”</p>
<p>The seriousness in the way Mama says that, the hard set of her features, Sara knows exactly what she means, and she isn’t talking about the general sum of any belongings she might want to take with her when uprooting her entire life.</p>
<p>No, she is talking about a very specific set of things.</p>
<p>She nods, and without a word goes upstairs to her room.</p>
<p>Mama isn’t much of a fighter, and Papa has always said he would prefer to use magic to defend himself as opposed to brawns. Sara hit a point a few years ago, when Jax and Lily got a bit older and Papa began teaching Lily a few simple defense spells, in which she began to wonder why Mama and Papa were always so insistent she were trained to fight. She had written it off then, telling herself that when they were her age a war had been brewing, and in any case she liked her lessons.</p>
<p>Now it all makes sense.</p>
<p>She changes into the clothes she typically wears during fighting lessons; an old pair of Papa’s pants with a short dress over them. She ties her hair back, steps into her boots, and then opens the bottom drawer of the dresser to retrieve her knives. She glances at the bow that lies in the drawer as well. It had been the first weapon her instructor had tried teaching her, though she never took to it. She grabs it and it’s arrows anyway, can’t be too prepared when marching off to challenge a vengeful sorcerer.</p>
<p>“Whoa.” Lisa says when she comes down the stairs, Iris smirking beside her.</p>
<p>“Oh yeah.” She comments, “Leonard’s gonna like her.”</p>
<p>She isn’t sure if that statement offends her or maybe intrigues her a little, ah well.</p>
<p>Iris turns to Barry then. “You’re up babe.”</p>
<p>He nods, and steps forward, and everyone else steps closer to him so Sara follows their lead.</p>
<p>Except, before he can do anything, Mama brings her hand up and rests it along Sara’s cheek.</p>
<p>“Be careful.” She says, “Lily, Jax, and I will stay here.”</p>
<p>“What?!” Lily protests, and Jax is whining as well but Mama shoots them both a glare.</p>
<p>“Yes.” She says, her tone allowing no room for an argument. “We’ll take care of Darhk’s men here.”</p>
<p>Her siblings are still whining, and while Sara would love to have Mama along and backing her up she knows she’s right. This battle might get messy, and it WILL be dangerous; it’s no place for Jax and Lily.</p>
<p>So, before Barry does whatever he is planning on doing, she takes a knee to be on eye-level with her siblings.</p>
<p>“You two watch out for any tricks these guys might have.” She instructs them. “Listen to Mama, stick together, and I’ll see you when this is all over. Ok?”</p>
<p>Lily huffs, barely meeting her eyes, but Jax is a little more receptive and while he does roll his eyes he also steps into her waiting embrace when she opens her arms, and after Sara motions her hand Lily follows suit.</p>
<p>Sara leaves them both with a kiss on the cheek, and a murmur to give Darhk’s men hell should any of them wake up. That at least puts smiles back on their faces, and when she’s back standing straight she gives Mama a hug goodbye.</p>
<p>“Come back to us.” Mama whispers in her ear, and Sara squeezes just a little tighter.</p>
<p>“I will.” She promises, and when she pulls back Mama has tears shining in her eyes.</p>
<p>Sara blinks away tears of her own, and takes a step back to join the group that has gathered around Barry.</p>
<p>It’s time to take this fight to Darhk.</p>
<hr/>
<p>If he’s being honest, while Leonard certainly didn’t have any high hopes set for this trip, he did think it would go better than this.</p>
<p>Of course, he’s pacing the floor of the dungeon while the castle has been taken over by a power hungry madman. He<em> had </em>been chained in here along with the King, the Queen, and the wizard who showed up out of nowhere to try and defeat Darhk. He never thought he would be grateful for the affinity Lewis always had for making use of their own dungeon, but then again he didn’t think he was set to meet his supposed future bride in the immediate future, so this weekend is just full of surprises.</p>
<p>Anyway, so far they don’t have a plan. Darhk has followers, a lot of them, and Leonard is willing to bet they’re prepared to defend their master to the death. So they’re outnumbered.</p>
<p>
  <em>CRACK!</em>
</p>
<p>Leonard has exactly one thought when a bolt of lightening suddenly strikes the ground a few feet in front of him and he jumps back to keep from being burned, and that thought is that he is not in the mood to deal with this again. Not another mad or incompetent sorcerer here to either maim or ‘help’ him, he’s had enough of those for today.</p>
<p>However when the smoke clears and he sees it’s a group of people who have teleported into the dungeon chamber he wishes it were only another incompetent sorcerer.</p>
<p>In addition to the idiot with magic, Barry, his sister and mother are also among the group. Iris is too, and…</p>
<p>And so is the girl he met in the woods today.</p>
<p>Huh.</p>
<p>“Oh thank goodness.” His mother is the first to speak, hurrying forward so that she’s standing in front of him and her hands are on his arms.</p>
<p>He lets her look him over, mutters to her once that he’s fine, and then while she is still affirming that fact for herself he looks over to the group.</p>
<p>“Glad to see you two made it.” He says to Barry and Iris. Iris nods, her mouth in a firm line. “Never would’ve thought your tardiness would pay off someday.”</p>
<p>Iris scoffs. “It was bound to eventually.”</p>
<p>He hums, and then brings his attention to the girl he met today. She’s over with Stein, pulling out of a hug with him, only for him to turn her towards the King and Queen who have moved closer to the two of them with very slow, very nervous steps.</p>
<p>“Sara?” The King asks, and oh, <em>oh.</em></p>
<p>Somehow, Leonard finds that he isn’t nearly as surprised as he thinks he ought to be.  Perhaps a few hours ago this might have been more of a shock, but it’s been an interesting night and now <em>“Jax and I are adopted.” </em>rings in his memory. Now he thinks of how he arrived here only to be told he’s betrothed to the Princess, and if he didn’t know then why on Earth would she have known? Besides, hiding her in plain sight in a nearby village makes sense. Of course it was her he met today, after everything else, why the hell not?</p>
<p>At least this makes matters a little easier.</p>
<p>Or maybe it makes them that much more difficult, that could also be the case.</p>
<p>“So?” Lisa’s voice interrupts his thoughts, “You got a plan?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Belly of the Beast</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter took a little longer than I like my chapters to take. I have no excuse other than I have been playing WAY too much Among Us lately.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When the smoke form Barry’s spell clears and Sara can feel solid ground under her feet again the first familiar face she sees is that of Papa, and she doesn’t hesitate to run and wrap him in a hug.</p>
<p>“Oh thank goodness.” He whispers into her ear. “But… but how?” He stammers as he pulls back enough to look her over. “The curse required-”</p>
<p>“You raised me in a home full of love.” She explains, “Jax was enough to break the curse.”</p>
<p>His smile to her is wide and proud, but just the scuff of a footstep behind him is enough to gain his attention and the next thing she knows he’s stepping to her side and sliding his hand to rest at her back, leaving King Quentin and Queen Dinah in front of her.</p>
<p>“Your Majesty.” He says, giving her a slight nudge forward. “It is my pleasure to introduce to you Princess Sara.”</p>
<p>She whirls her head back to him, looking at him as if to ask if he’s lost his mind, but of course he is beaming at her with so much pride that she looks back to the King and the Queen.</p>
<p>Her parents.</p>
<p>She fumbles for the very edges of her dress and bends her knees in a curtsey that she isn’t able to finish because she suddenly finds herself enveloped in a tight hug.</p>
<p>She stumbles forward a bit, catching herself by wrapping her arms around the person who has hugged her; Queen Dinah.</p>
<p>King Quentin is walking up behind her, tears in his eyes as he looks down at her.</p>
<p>“Sorry to break up the reunion.” A voice… drawls….</p>
<p>She pulls out of the hug with her mother much quicker than what is probably polite, certainly quicker than she’d meant to, but that voice…</p>
<p>He’s here.</p>
<p>The stranger from the woods is approaching, with Lisa by his side.</p>
<p>Her mind goes blank for all of ten seconds that feel like an eternity. Why… why is he here? How… was Darhk spying on her today? And Lisa, he looks so comfortable next to her, like he belongs there, and…</p>
<p>Oh.</p>
<p>
  <em>“Leonard’s gonna like her.”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Oh.</em>
</p>
<p>“But it won’t take Darhk long to find you guys here.” He looks to her specifically. “And once he knows you’re here, that’s when the knives are going to come out.”</p>
<p>The words spur her; at least enough that she is able to nod and tell herself that this insane path her mind is taking her down right now isn’t entirely important at the moment. She has a barrage of questions, but they can be asked later. Right now they need to focus on ensuring there <em>is</em> a later.</p>
<p>“He isn’t the only one who has knives.”</p>
<p>He raises an eyebrow and she can’t help but to quirk her lips into a smirk.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, he is the only one amused.</p>
<p>“Don’t even think about it.” Papa interjects, “You are not… Why did Clarissa even let you come here?!”</p>
<p>Well, so much for his being happy to see her.</p>
<p>“Because Darhk can’t be trusted to leave well enough alone.” She reminds him. “When he doesn’t hear back from the scouts he sent to the house he’ll be suspicious, and whether he knows I’m awake or not sooner or later he’ll decide keeping all his enemies in a dungeon isn’t enough. He’ll start killing.”</p>
<p>“Couldn’t have said it better myself, Your Highness.”</p>
<p>Sara turns - they all do - just in time to see the door creak open and Darhk enter the dungeon with a guard flanking him on either side.</p>
<p>He has one of the guards close the door behind him, and their entire group goes still, all eyes narrowed in on him and his wicked grin.</p>
<p>“I suppose I should thank you.” He says, “You’ve saved me the trouble of gathering all you morons in one place.”</p>
<p>Sara notices the change in his posture as he plants his feet firmly on the ground and his palms turn upright. She brings a hand to her side, ready to draw the knife from her belt.</p>
<p>She never gets the chance.</p>
<p>All in the blink of an eye Papa and Barry each start to move and it proves to be a big mistake. Darhk is able to pull them off the ground and suspend them in the air, their heads craned up at uncomfortable looking angles and their gasps choked. The corners of his mouth are pulling up in a wicked grin when Iris steps forward and with no more effort than that of Darhk narrowing his eyes at her she stops short.</p>
<p>Sara realizes then that she still hasn’t drawn her knife. In fact, her fingers are only barely curled around the handle. She tries to remedy that but she can’t. She can’t move at all. The most she can do is glance around as much as she is able without the ability to move her neck.</p>
<p>King Quen… Her father, is next to her. Her mother is on her other side, and Darhk is stepping forward.</p>
<p>“I’ve been thinking about which one of you idiots I should kill first.” He says, and Papa chokes with a new urgency that makes Sara fight the urge to close her eyes.</p>
<p>“Should it be the magic hack who dared alter my curse?” He demands before Sara hears Papa sighing with a strained relief as Darhk uncurls the fingers of his left hand by barely an inch. “Or the traitor who dared defy me in the first place?”</p>
<p>Sara hears her father gulp in time with Darhk getting this look of absolute, terrifying glee in his eyes.</p>
<p>“I decided, why not all at once?”</p>
<p>There’s no time to question it.</p>
<p>Darhk slams his hands forward, sending Papa and Barry flying into the group of them. Personally, Sara receives a face full off Barry’s foot while her own feet are knocked out from under her and she lands with a harsh thud on the stone floor. Barry groans on top of her, scrambling as she pushes at him and tries to sit up. She hears Darhk saying something in what she recognizes from Papa’s spells as Latin. His voice changes with the words, becoming deeper and rougher, until the words barely sound like words and a loud, animalistic roar sounds out.</p>
<p>That’s when Barry finally gets out of her way and she is able to see.</p>
<p>Where Darhk just stood an enormous dragon is now in his place, growing taller by the second. His head busts through the ceiling, and stones start falling. The entire group scrambles to their feet, Sara aware that the hands grabbing at her arm belong to her father but she shrugs them off anyway. They all scramble into a corner of the dungeon like mice running from a cat.</p>
<p>“Since when can he do that?!” Queen Lillian shouts over the falling rubble of the dungeon and the roars of fire coming from Darhk above them.</p>
<p>“Darhk has been living in the Moors for sixteen years!” Papa shouts, “He must have picked up some new tricks!”</p>
<p>It’s the stranger – Leonard, probably – at Papa’s side who Sara notices glaring at both him and her father.</p>
<p>“You mean to tell me you two banished a psychotic, vengeful sorcerer to a magical realm?! Why wouldn’t you expect him to grow stronger?!”</p>
<p>“We had no choice!” Her father shouts back. “His armies were too strong, no one could get close enough to kill him! The Moors was the only realm which could contain his power!”</p>
<p>Sara swears she can see the thought flit through Leonard’s mind to strangle her father right here and now before he pushes it away and instead steps around Papa in time to pull his mother out of the way of a falling stone. She shrieks, and the entire group of them takes a step back, knocking against one another as they try to push even deeper into the corner. Sara happens to grab onto Queen Lillian’s arm, helping Leonard pull her back, and he glances down at her.</p>
<p>“Did you say you have a knife?” He asks.</p>
<p>“I do.” She confirms, just before a <em>very </em>loud roar sounds out above them. “Not sure it’s gonna be enough.”</p>
<p>His wide eyes should look like panic, and in a very small measure they do, but there is more. There is frantic, there is thought. She can see pieces to a puzzle bumping together in his mind, trying to sort out.</p>
<p>“How are you with a sword?”</p>
<p>She raises an eyebrow at him.</p>
<p>“Do you have one?” She questions, because it may be dark in here, but she’s crowded up in his side and her legs are noticing a distinct lack of a weighted sheath or a belt sturdy enough to secure one.</p>
<p>He glances over at the other side of the dungeon, where the wall has basically been destroyed and Darhk’s two guards are slipping away through the rubble.</p>
<p>“Give me a minute.”</p>
<p>He races off without another word, dodging falling stones as he chases the guards and Sara, well, he can’t seriously expect her to stand here and wait for him to come back, can he?</p>
<p>She slips her knife from her belt and shoves it into Queen Lillian’s hand, and then she detaches her bow and small assortment of arrows from the back of her belt. She hands those over to Iris, hoping that at least one person in their little group here has some idea how to use them. A better idea than she does anyway.</p>
<p>“Sara!” She isn’t sure if it’s Papa or her father who shouts at her – and it’s very possible that it’s both. In any case she doesn’t pay the call much attention and bolts through the room, racing after Leonard. She keeps running, jumping over fallen sections of the dungeon walls and up the stairs that should lead her back to the main floor of the castle; which are only barely in tact.</p>
<p>Emerging at the top of the stairs she sees Leonard halfway down the corridor and engaged in a sword fight with two of Darhk’s guards, a third lying limp on the ground with his neck twisted to an unnatural position.</p>
<p>Choosing to ignore that for the time being Sara grabs another of her knives from her boot and races into the fight. Leonard is clashing swords with one guard while the other is on his back with his sword laid across his throat.</p>
<p>That seems to be a good place for her to jump in.</p>
<p>She runs up behind the guard and imbeds her knife deep enough into him that it does the job she needs, not so deep that it comes out the other side and stabs Leonard.</p>
<p>Speaking of Leonard, he glances back at her with a wild and surprised look in his eye for only a fraction of a second and then he has to refocus on his fight with the other guard. Without the distraction of being choked by a sword he is able to subdue his enemy quickly, impaling him through the stomach and stopping only long enough to make sure he’s dead before he bends down and takes his sword from his hand.</p>
<p>“You never mentioned today you were a Princess.” He says as he hands her the sword of their enemy.</p>
<p>“I don’t recall you mentioning being a Prince.” She says and he hums. “You got a plan?”</p>
<p>He looks down the corridor, where the rumblings of a collapsing building and roars of a dragon can be heard. Most of the castle is almost certainly destroyed by now, and once he realizes they aren’t lying among the rubble Darhk will be knocking out this corner as well. One swoop of his giant dragon tail and that’ll be it.</p>
<p>“One of us goes high, one of us goes low. You have a preference?”</p>
<p>She shakes her head, testing the weight of her new sword from one hand to the other.</p>
<p>“You?”</p>
<p>He sighs, “I’m gonna say high.” He says, “Not the first time I’ve run towards someone trying to kill me.”</p>
<p>She nods, and she finds herself in that moment thinking a truly ridiculous thought. She wants to kiss him. She wants to ask that he promise to come back to her. She wants to know, later on, if the attraction she felt this afternoon with him in the woods might evolve into something real. She wants to know the reason he’s still looking at her with those mesmerizing eyes of his rather than running off.</p>
<p>“Try not to die.” She finds herself saying, “When this is over, something tells me they’re gonna need all the help they can get fixing this place.”</p>
<p>“Who says I’m sticking around?” He asks, but there’s a taunt to his words, a lack of an edge, and challenge all at once.</p>
<p>Sara smirks.</p>
<p>But she doesn’t get a chance to say anything back.</p>
<p>There is a loud, earth-disturbing roar. The entire castle trembles around them and the next thing Sara knows a nearby wall is shattering to pieces and flying at them.</p>
<p>“Sara!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Happily Ever After</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Sara!”</p>
<p>She hears Leonard shout, but it’s too late. A shadow moving far too coordinately from above her is the only other warning she has before a huge scaly fist warps tightly around her, but not any tighter than her own grip on her sword.</p>
<p>“Looks like I’m going high.” She grunts, squirming in the clutch of the fist but it’s no use, and really it works better that way.</p>
<p>She tries to keep watch over Leonard as she’s whisked up but the motion is too fast and she has no choice but to close her eyes. The sound of Darhk’s roar is near deafening, and it sounds as though he’s in pain. Maybe Leonard’s stabbed his ankles, or someone has made use of her bow. In either case it could lead to Darhk losing his grip on her sooner rather than later, she needs to be ready.</p>
<p>She bends her knees back, planting her heels on the edge of Darhk’s fist and angling her sword down. She may only have one shot at this, it needs to count.</p>
<p>Soon the wind stops moving through her hair and against her face. She dares to open her eyes and flinches, and closes them again, upon being met by the sight of two nostrils the size of her own body flaring hot air at her. Soon the fist around her uncurls and she lets herself fall without so much as a shriek. She doesn’t fall long, only into Darhk’s waiting hand below where he no doubt has plans for either barbequing her or properly crushing her. But her downward facing sword lands first, piercing through Darhk’s palm, and he grunts roughly above her. She moves quickly after that, scrambling to her feet and yanking the sword out, unminding of the practical lake of blood pooling around her. She bolts across his hand, jumping off just as he flexes it into a closed fist and bringing her sword forward to catch in his throat.</p>
<p>Darhk roars and thrashes as her sword stabs into and slides down his scales, and finally she’s knocked off. She loses grip on the handle of the sword almost right away and is sent flying forwards. She closes her eyes tucks her head, she curls her spine and brings her hands out in front of her, palms flat. This is going to hurt, a lot, but maybe if she can land right she’ll live.</p>
<p>She feels the rough surface of the first fractured brick on the castle floor scrape her fingertip before the crash doesn’t come.</p>
<p>She’s still moving, but suddenly the wind is coming from the side rather than below. Her body is stiff and, oh, she’s been in this situation once or twice before, usually when falling from a very high tree she’s climbed up.</p>
<p>She cracks an eye open and sure enough Papa is ushering her to him, his magic surrounding her like an aura. As he gets her nearer his hold on her lessens and she is able to uncurl herself and land safely on the ground.</p>
<p>“Thanks Papa.” She breathes and he smiles at her, just as Barry comes running past them.</p>
<p>“RUN!” He screams, and Sara is almost confused, but then she remembers, she just stabbed a giant dragon in the throat.</p>
<p>So yeah, run.</p>
<p>As she runs she quickly finds herself falling in line with the rest of the group, which includes both Lisa and Leonard each covered in a fair amount of blood.</p>
<p>“You went low?” She asks Leonard.</p>
<p>“I did, and my sister made use of your arrows, though not so much the bow.”</p>
<p>Sara nods, picturing Lisa stabbing at the ankles of the dragon with her arrows.</p>
<p>“Glad they were sharp enough.”</p>
<p>Leonard hums, and Sara jumps as she feels the whoosh of air as the Darhk finally falls. There’s a final thud behind them and they all turn just in time to see the body of their foe start to turn to smoke and blow off into the night, until there is nothing left.</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <em>~One Year Later~</em>
</p>
<p>“Sara!”</p>
<p>Sara turns around, her smile stretching wide as she crouches down and opens up her arms just in time for Lily to crash against her.</p>
<p>“Oh, I’ve missed you so much!” She gushes, peeking her eyes open to see Jax standing back and practically bouncing on his heels, so she opens one arm back up and waves for him to come join them. He comes running, and it feels so good to be holding both her siblings again. She presses a kiss to each of their cheeks before they finally pull back and she rises back to her feet only to be pulled into a hug first by Mama, and then by Papa.</p>
<p>“We’ve missed you too.” Mama says.</p>
<p>“Yes.” Papa adds, “Though these two have made sure to cause plenty of trouble to make up for your absence.”</p>
<p>“I’m working on magic without a wand!” Lily proudly informs her, bouncing up on her toes.</p>
<p>“Oh really?” She asks,</p>
<p>“Yes.” Papa answers for Lily, “And so far we have only had to put out two fires.”</p>
<p>Sara can’t help but to laugh, she can just picture that.</p>
<p>“What time’s the wedding start?” Jax pipes up, and while Mama looks as though she’s ready to scold him Sara doesn’t miss Papa smirking, and that is where she chooses to direct her attention.</p>
<p>“Is something funny?” She tries to sound annoyed, but even she knows it’s a miserable failure.</p>
<p>“Of course not my dear.” He insists, the mischievous twinkle still in his eyes. “But I do believe I speak for everyone when I say there was some fear that convincing you to go ahead with the arranged marriage was going to be an uphill battle.”</p>
<p>“We certainly weren’t expecting you to leap at it.” Mama says, and Sara rolls her eyes.</p>
<p>She’ll admit it, she fell hard and fast for Leonard. After the defeat of Darhk he and his family have been helping her parents rebuild the castle, fortunately nothing else of the City of Central was destroyed. He’s stayed with them, him and Lisa, in royal safe house that was intended for events just like that of a sorcerer transformed into a dragon and destroying the castle, and she’s gotten to know him very well in that time. He’s sweet, but more than that, he isn’t what she would have expected from a Prince. He’s seen the world first hand and fought his own battles, and he understands that she has to. He doesn’t try to make her into the ‘perfect’ Princess.</p>
<p>So, she’s made it to her wedding day, and she is actually excited for it.</p>
<p>Though perhaps not as excited as Lily and Jax - her flower girl and ring bearer – who have by now run past her and begun excitedly practicing their roles and their bows.</p>
<p>Just then there is a knock from the door and it opens for her father to poke his head into the room, one hand over his eyes.</p>
<p>“Everyone decent in here?”</p>
<p>“Yes.” She answers with a good-natured roll of her eyes, “Mama and Papa are in here.”</p>
<p>He pulls his hand down, laughing, and closes the door behind him as he lets himself in.</p>
<p>“Martin, I was afraid you wouldn’t make it.” He says, coming over and shaking Papa’s hand, which easily turns into pulling him in for a hug.</p>
<p>“We wouldn’t miss this for the world Quentin.” Papa assures him, Mama moving to hug him next.</p>
<p>They exchange pleasantries and Sara watches happily, and after a moment Mama calls for Lily and Jax to come along and soon the four of them are seeing themselves out, and she’s alone with her father.</p>
<p>After a year she’s learned to be comfortable with her parents. At first they were strangers, and she had no idea how to act around them. Fortunately Papa was willing to stay with them throughout the first few weeks after Darhk’s attack. He helped with the rebuilding, and he claimed to have stayed just in case Darhk or some lackey of his were to come back, but Sara knew the main reason was her. He spent the majority of his time with them helping her adjust, and she thinks it is thanks mostly to his efforts she is able to stand before her father now and not feel as though she wants to run away.</p>
<p>Her father is looking down at her, smiling a watery smile.</p>
<p>“You look beautiful baby.” He says, and she beams.</p>
<p>She had chosen to stray from the traditional wedding dress of a Princess; white and very poofy. Instead she’s wearing the blue gown Mama and Papa got for her a year ago. It’s simple, more of a gown for a wedding in the Village Square, but perfect for her, and because it came from Mama and Papa her parents supported the stray from tradition.</p>
<p>“Thank you.”</p>
<p>He’s still smiling, and instead of saying anything he presses a kiss to her head, and just has he’s pulling away the door cracks open and her mother lets herself in, beaming from ear to ear as well.</p>
<p>“Are you ready?” She asks, gliding across the room and starting immediately on straightening out the skirt of Sara’s dress.</p>
<p>“Yeah.” Sara answers, gently stilling her mother’s wrist. “I’m ready.”</p>
<hr/>
<p>The ceremony is, well, large and more than what Sara would’ve personally wanted for her wedding. But she gets it, she’s a Princess marrying a Prince, it’s a big deal for more people than just her family. She can live with it, especially since Leonard has a way of always making it feel like they are in a world all their own.</p>
<p>Speaking of Leonard, Sara likes very much the feeling of being married to him. They’re at the reception now, dancing, and in the background she can hear Papa insisting that the pink dress would have looked better than the blue one for today.</p>
<p>“So what’s next?” She asks Len as they dance, “I heard you talking with Barry earlier.”</p>
<p>He frowns, “I’m supposed to go with him to National.” He says in a low voice, “They’ve been in a power struggle for years, but after Darhk went full dragon last year we’re worried the Empress may have been… inspired. The rebellion there is growing stronger.”</p>
<p>Sara hums, “Are you going to squash the rebellion?”</p>
<p>He laughs and spins her around. “Come on Princess.” He teases her, “What would be the fun in that?”</p>
<p>She smirks, well aware of what he means. From what she’s heard the Empress of National is, for lack of a better term, two-faced. She knows how to charm other diplomats into taking her side and then she will very literally stab them in the back when they no longer suit her. It’s rumored she has magic, and based on that account Sara wouldn’t doubt it.</p>
<p>She’s heard of the rebellion leaders as well. The former Princess Kara and her lady in waiting, Alex. From what she’s heard Princess Kara is a sorceress; which is part of the reason the rebellion there has been struggling for so long. The citizens are hesitant enough as is to fight and take down one magical tyrant, the idea of her replacement wielding magic as well frightens them. But Sara believes it would be for the best. With what’s happened lately, they’re corner of the world needs one of its leaders wielding magic and not abusing it. They need people to remember not all magic is bad.</p>
<p>The song she and Leonard are dancing to ends, and as the party guests applaud they take a moment to bow to them and then leave the floor.</p>
<p>“I hope you’re not planning to leave me here and hog all that fun for yourself.” She says in a low enough voice that only Leonard hears.</p>
<p>He smirks, and pulls her to him for a quick, innocent kiss.</p>
<p>“Never.” He whispers as they part. “Besides, you’d stow away if I tried.”</p>
<p>She smirks, as there isn’t so much as a hint of annoyance in his voice. The opposite actually. There is excitement, there is challenge; he wants and expects to have her by his side as much more than just another royal obligation.</p>
<p>Oh, she is well aware of all the gossip behind his back about how he doesn’t play his role as Prince in the way it’s intended, and she knows that by learning from his example she will never become the desired, delicate, Princess.</p>
<p>But, as he’s said, where would the fun be in that?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ta-da! Thank you everyone for reading and for your wonderful words of encouragement alongtheu way! A special shoutout to ColdFan, who has been extra lovely and commented on every chapter! Thank you!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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